Defect engineering on V2O3 cathode for long-cycling aqueous zinc metal batteries

Abstract

Defect engineering is a strategy that is attracting widespread attention for the possibility of modifying battery active materials in order to improve the cycling stability of the electrodes. However, accurate investigation and quantification of the effect of the defects on the electrochemical energy storage performance of the cell are not trivial tasks. Herein, we report the quantification of vanadium-defective clusters (i.e., up to 5.7%) in the V2O3 lattice via neutron and X-ray powder diffraction measurements, positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy, and synchrotron-based X-ray analysis. When the vanadium-defective V2O3 is employed as cathode active material in an aqueous Zn coin cell configuration, capacity retention of about 81% after 30,000 cycles at 5 A g−1 is achieved. Density functional theory calculations indicate that the vanadium-defective clusters can provide favorable sites for reversible Zn-ion storage. Moreover, the vanadium-defective clusters allow the storage of Zn ions in V2O3, which reduces the electrostatic interaction between the host material and the multivalent ions.

Laser-Reduced BiVO4 for Enhanced Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting

“…Two new resonances appear at around 5488 and 5500 eV, similar to V 2 O 3 . 45 The pre-edge peak decreases in intensity and this is further confirmation that the reduction process occurred in the bulk of the sample. Moreover, a different local symmetry was obtained for the pristine and laser-irradiated samples compared to the H 2 -reduced film, as confirmed by the analysis of extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS).…”

An Air-Rechargeable Zn/Organic Battery with Proton Storage

“…The excellent electrochemical performance of Zn/BQPH batteries depends on their fast reaction kinetics, as reflected by CV curves at various scan rates (Figure e). The relationship between scan rate ( v ) and peak current ( i ) is shown as follows: − where a and b are adjustable parameters. If the b value is 1, the reaction process is controlled by the capacitance behavior, while the electrochemical behavior is controlled by the ionic diffusion when the value of b is 0.5.…”

Hierarchical Heterostructure Engineering of Layered Double Hydroxides on Nickel Sulfides Heteronanowire Arrays as Efficient Cathode for Alkaline Aqueous Zinc Batteries

“…A clear discharge voltage platform of ≈1.7 V can be seen in the fabricated NF\Ni 3 S 2 /NiS@NiCo‐LDH//Zn battery, which is higher than that of many other aqueous batteries, including Ni‐Cd batteries (≈1.2 V), [ 4b ] Ni‐Fe batteries (≈1.2 V), [ 28 ] and Zn‐ion batteries (≈0.7–1.2 V). [ 29 ] Impressively, the NF\Ni 3 S 2 /NiS@NiCo‐LDH//Zn battery yields remarkable capacities from 317.9 to 100.3 mAh g −1 at current densities from 2 to 15 A g −1 , respectively (Figure 5c), which is superior to those of many recently aqueous Zn based rechargeable batteries including sd‐NiCo 2 S 4‐x @CC//Zn (257.8 mAh g −1 at 0.5 A g −1 ), [ 30 ] NiCo 2 O 4 /Ni foam//Zn (230.1 mAh g −1 at 0.5 A g −1 ), [ 31 ] Ni 2 P//Zn (231 mAh g −1 at 1.0 A g −1 ), [ 22 ] NF/Co 3 S 4 nanosheets//Zn (317 mAh g −1 at 1 A g −1 ), [ 32 ] Co 3 O 4 //Zn (162 mAh g −1 at 1 A g −1 ), [ 33 ] Ni3P@CC*//Zn/CC* (322 mAh g −1 at 1.0 A g −1 ), [ 34 ] R‐Co 3 O 4 //Zn (259.3 mAh g −1 at 1.04 A g −1 ), [ 35 ] V d ‐V 2 O 3 //Zn (196 mAh g −1 at 0.1 A g −1 ), [ 36 ] and Mn 2 O 3 ‐ZnMn 2 O 4 //Zn (247.4 mAh g −1 at 0.1 A g −1 ). [ 29b ] In addition, the areal capacity of batteries is also an important parameter for practical applications.…”