Aqueous zinc (Zn) batteries have been considered as promising candidates for grid-scale energy storage. However, their cycle stability is generally limited by the structure collapse of cathode materials and dendrite formation coupled with undesired hydrogen evolution on the Zn anode. Herein we propose a zinc-organic battery with a phenanthrenequinone macrocyclic trimer (PQ-MCT) cathode, a zinc-foil anode, and a non-aqueous electrolyte of a N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) solution containing Zn2+ . The non-aqueous nature of the system and the formation of a Zn2+ -DMF complex can efficiently eliminate undesired hydrogen evolution and dendrite growth on the Zn anode, respectively. Furthermore, the organic cathode can store Zn2+ ions through a reversible coordination reaction with fast kinetics. Therefore, this battery can be cycled 20 000 times with negligible capacity fading. Surprisingly, this battery can even be operated in a wide temperature range from -70 to 150 °C.
Keywords: dendrite-free electrodes; electrochemistry; energy storage; non-aqueous electrolytes; zinc-organic batteries.
© 2020 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.