Buried interface engineering towards stable zinc anodes for high-performance aqueous zinc-ion batteries

Qing Wen; Hao Fu; Chao Sun; Rude Cui; Hezhang Chen; Ruihan Ji; Linbo Tang; Lingjun Li; Jiexi Wang; Qing Wu; Jiafeng Zhang; Xiahui Zhang; Junchao Zheng

doi:10.1016/j.scib.2024.12.017

Buried interface engineering towards stable zinc anodes for high-performance aqueous zinc-ion batteries

Sci Bull (Beijing). 2024 Dec 13:S2095-9273(24)00922-8. doi: 10.1016/j.scib.2024.12.017. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Qing Wen¹, Hao Fu¹, Chao Sun¹, Rude Cui¹, Hezhang Chen², Ruihan Ji¹, Linbo Tang¹, Lingjun Li³, Jiexi Wang⁴, Qing Wu⁵, Jiafeng Zhang¹, Xiahui Zhang⁶, Junchao Zheng⁷

Affiliations

¹ School of Metallurgy and Environment, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China; Engineering Research Center of the Ministry of Education for Advanced Battery Materials, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China; National Energy Metal Resources and New Materials Key Laboratory, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China.
² School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University of Science and Technology, Xiangtan 411201, China.
³ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Changsha 410114, China.
⁴ School of Metallurgy and Environment, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China; Engineering Research Center of the Ministry of Education for Advanced Battery Materials, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China; National Energy Metal Resources and New Materials Key Laboratory, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China; National Engineering Research Centre of Advanced Energy Storage Materials, Changsha 410205, China.
⁵ School of Information and Network Center Central South University, Changsha 410083, China.
⁶ School of Metallurgy and Environment, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China; Engineering Research Center of the Ministry of Education for Advanced Battery Materials, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China; National Energy Metal Resources and New Materials Key Laboratory, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁷ School of Metallurgy and Environment, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China; Engineering Research Center of the Ministry of Education for Advanced Battery Materials, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China; National Energy Metal Resources and New Materials Key Laboratory, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 39730219
DOI: 10.1016/j.scib.2024.12.017

Abstract

The dendrite and corrosion issues still remain for zinc anodes. Interface modification of anodes has been widely used for stabilizing zinc anodes. However, it is still quite challenging for such modification to simultaneously suppress zinc dendrites and corrosion issues. Herein, we propose a new strategy of buried interface engineering to effectively stabilize Zn anodes, in which a zincophilic Sn layer is buried by a corrosion-resistant ZnS layer (SZS). The buried Sn layer has a strong adsorption energy towards Zn atoms, which accelerates the nucleation of Zn atoms and induces smooth deposition. Meanwhile, the outer ZnS layer protects the newly deposited zinc layer from the corrosion by the electrolyte. As a result, the SZS@Zn symmetric cell demonstrates stable cycling for over 280 h compared to Bare Zn (41 h) at a high current of 10 mA cm^-2 and a high areal capacity of 10 mAh cm^-2. Besides, SZS@Zn//MnO₂ full cells also achieve enhanced long-term cycling stability of 63.6% for 1000 cycles at a high rate of 10 C, compared to Bare Zn (47.2%). This work provides a new strategy of buried interface for the rational design of highly stable metal anodes for other metal batteries.

Keywords: Buried interface; Surface modification; Zinc anode; Zinc ion battery.