Interface engineering with porous graphene as deposition regulator of stable Zn metal anode for long-life Zn-ion capacitor

Lei Hu; Kai Yang; Yunpeng Zhang; Nengze Wang; Mengxuan Sun; Zhijie Li; Xiaojun Yao; Chunyang Jia

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2022.11.030

Interface engineering with porous graphene as deposition regulator of stable Zn metal anode for long-life Zn-ion capacitor

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2023 Feb;631(Pt B):135-146. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.11.030. Epub 2022 Nov 9.

Authors

Lei Hu¹, Kai Yang¹, Yunpeng Zhang², Nengze Wang², Mengxuan Sun³, Zhijie Li³, Xiaojun Yao⁴, Chunyang Jia⁵

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated Devices, School of Electronic Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, PR China.
² Shenzhen Institute for Advanced Study, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Shenzhen 518110, PR China.
³ School of Physics, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, PR China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Applied Organic Chemistry, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, PR China.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated Devices, School of Electronic Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, PR China; Shenzhen Institute for Advanced Study, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Shenzhen 518110, PR China. Electronic address: cyjia@uestc.edu.cn.

PMID: 36399806
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.11.030

Abstract

The zinc (Zn) dendrite accumulation leads to poor Coulombic efficiency, continuously failing life and severe safety risks, which seriously impede the commercial application of Zn ion capacitors (ZICs). Herein, an interface engineering is proposed for the Zn metal anode to restrain the dendrite by using porous flame reduced graphene oxide (FRGO) as the ex-situ protective and regulated layer to induce the Zn crystal growth and restricts the side reactions. The FRGO possesses extensive nanoscale pores and zincophilic oxygen-containing functional groups, which can absorb Zn²⁺ and nucleate preferentially on the surface of FRGO, then induce the growth of Zn parallel to the graphene sheet by matching the basal (002) plane of metallic Zn to minimize lattice strain. As a result, it eliminates the tip effect and achieves the deposited Zn with a uniform and flat surface. Therefore, The FRGO on the Zn (FRGO@Zn) anode significantly reduces the nucleation overpotential and improves the cycling life during the plating/stripping process. Notably, FRGO@Zn based ZIC can achieve 91.0% capacity retention after more than 20,000 cycles at 5 A g^-1, and its capacity and maximum energy density are 150.6 mAh g^-1 and 118.8 Wh kg^-1, respectively. This interface engineering of FRGO for the Zn metal anode has excellent application potential and theoretical guidance in the ZICs field.

Keywords: Aqueous Zn-ion capacitor; Deposition regulator; Interface engineering; Porous graphene coating; Stable Zn metal anode.