Stable, high-performance, dendrite-free, seawater-based aqueous batteries

Huajun Tian; Zhao Li; Guangxia Feng; Zhenzhong Yang; David Fox; Maoyu Wang; Hua Zhou; Lei Zhai; Akihiro Kushima; Yingge Du; Zhenxing Feng; Xiaonan Shan; Yang Yang

doi:10.1038/s41467-020-20334-6

Stable, high-performance, dendrite-free, seawater-based aqueous batteries

Nat Commun. 2021 Jan 11;12(1):237. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-20334-6.

Authors

Huajun Tian¹, Zhao Li¹, Guangxia Feng², Zhenzhong Yang³, David Fox^{1

4}, Maoyu Wang⁵, Hua Zhou⁶, Lei Zhai^{1

4}, Akihiro Kushima^{1

7

8}, Yingge Du³, Zhenxing Feng⁹, Xiaonan Shan¹⁰, Yang Yang^{11

12

13}

Affiliations

¹ NanoScience Technology Center, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, 32826, USA.
² Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, W306, Engineering Building 2, University of Houston, Houston, TX, 77204, USA.
³ Physical and Computational Sciences Directorate, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, 99352, USA.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, 32826, USA.
⁵ School of Chemical, Biological, and Environmental Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA.
⁶ X-ray Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL, 60439, USA.
⁷ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, 32826, USA.
⁸ Advanced Materials Processing and Analysis Center, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, 32826, USA.
⁹ School of Chemical, Biological, and Environmental Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA. zhenxing.feng@oregonstate.edu.
¹⁰ Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, W306, Engineering Building 2, University of Houston, Houston, TX, 77204, USA. xshan@central.uh.edu.
¹¹ NanoScience Technology Center, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, 32826, USA. Yang.Yang@ucf.edu.
¹² Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, 32826, USA. Yang.Yang@ucf.edu.
¹³ Energy Conversion and Propulsion Cluster, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, 32826, USA. Yang.Yang@ucf.edu.

Abstract

Metal anode instability, including dendrite growth, metal corrosion, and hetero-ions interference, occurring at the electrolyte/electrode interface of aqueous batteries, are among the most critical issues hindering their widespread use in energy storage. Herein, a universal strategy is proposed to overcome the anode instability issues by rationally designing alloyed materials, using Zn-M alloys as model systems (M = Mn and other transition metals). An in-situ optical visualization coupled with finite element analysis is utilized to mimic actual electrochemical environments analogous to the actual aqueous batteries and analyze the complex electrochemical behaviors. The Zn-Mn alloy anodes achieved stability over thousands of cycles even under harsh electrochemical conditions, including testing in seawater-based aqueous electrolytes and using a high current density of 80 mA cm^-2. The proposed design strategy and the in-situ visualization protocol for the observation of dendrite growth set up a new milestone in developing durable electrodes for aqueous batteries and beyond.