This work reports the facile synthesis of nonaqueous zinc‐ion conducting polymer electrolyte (ZIP) membranes using an ultraviolet (UV)‐light‐induced photopolymerization technique, with room temperature (RT) ionic conductivity values in the order of 10−3 S cm−1. The ZIP membranes demonstrate excellent physicochemical and electrochemical properties, including an electrochemical stability window of >2.4 V versus Zn|Zn2+ and dendrite‐free plating/stripping processes in symmetric Zn||Zn cells. Besides, a UV‐polymerization‐assisted in situ process is developed to produce ZIP (abbreviated i‐ZIP), which is adopted for the first time to fabricate a nonaqueous zinc‐metal polymer battery (ZMPB; VOPO4|i‐ZIP|Zn) and zinc‐metal hybrid polymer supercapacitor (ZMPS; activated carbon|i‐ZIP|Zn) cells. The VOPO4 cathode employed in ZMPB possesses a layered morphology, exhibiting a high average operating voltage of ≈1.2 V. As compared to the conventional polymer cell assembling approach using the ex situ process, the in situ process is simple and it enhances the overall electrochemical performance, which enables the widespread intrusion of ZMPBs and ZMPSs into the application domain. Indeed, considering the promising aspects of the proposed ZIP and its easy processability, this work opens up a new direction for the emergence of the zinc‐based energy storage technologies.
Rechargeable aqueous zinc-metal batteries (ZMBs) are considered as potential energy storage devices for stationary applications. Despite the significant developments in recent years, the performance of ZMBs is still limited due to the lack of advanced cathode materials delivering high capacity and long cycle life. In this work, we report a lowtemperature and scalable synthesis method following a surfactant-assisted route for preparing manganese-doped hydrated vanadium oxide (MnHVO-30) and its application as the cathode material for ZMB. The as-prepared material possesses a porous architecture and expanded interlayer spacing. Therefore, the MnHVO-30 cathode offers fast and reversible insertion of Zn 2+ ions during the charge/discharge process and delivers 341 mAh g −1 capacity at 0.1 A g −1 . Moreover, the MnHVO-30||Zn cell retains 82% of its initial capacity over 1200 stability cycles, which is higher compared to that of the undoped system. Besides, a quasi-solid-state home-made pouch cell with an area of 3.3 × 1.6 cm 2 and 3.6 mg cm −2 loading is assembled, achieving 115 mAh g −1 capacity over 100 stability cycles. Therefore, this work provides an easy and attractive way for preparing efficient cathode materials for aqueous ZMBs.
Rechargeable batteries consisting of a Zn metal anode and a suitable cathode coupled with a Zn2+ion-conducting electrolyte are recently emerging as promising energy storage devices for stationary applications. However, the...
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