Towards a high-performance anode for zinc metal batteries: A tri-functional nitrogen-defective graphitic carbon nitride material for anode protection

Denglei Zhu; Jianxin Li; Fengzhang Ren; Yong Liu; Jiangzhuo Ren; Yi Xiong

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2023.07.171

Towards a high-performance anode for zinc metal batteries: A tri-functional nitrogen-defective graphitic carbon nitride material for anode protection

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2023 Dec:651:504-513. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.07.171. Epub 2023 Jul 28.

Authors

Denglei Zhu¹, Jianxin Li², Fengzhang Ren³, Yong Liu⁴, Jiangzhuo Ren⁵, Yi Xiong⁶

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Provincial and Ministerial Co-construction of Collaborative Innovation Center for Non-ferrous Metal New Materials and Advanced Processing Technology, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang 471023, China; School of Materials Science and Engineering, Anyang Institute of Technology, Anyang 455000, China.
² School of Materials Science and Engineering, Anyang Institute of Technology, Anyang 455000, China.
³ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Provincial and Ministerial Co-construction of Collaborative Innovation Center for Non-ferrous Metal New Materials and Advanced Processing Technology, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang 471023, China. Electronic address: renfz@haust.edu.cn.
⁴ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Provincial and Ministerial Co-construction of Collaborative Innovation Center for Non-ferrous Metal New Materials and Advanced Processing Technology, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang 471023, China. Electronic address: liuyong209@haust.edu.cn.
⁵ School of Construction Machinery, Chang'an University, Xi'an 710064, China.
⁶ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Provincial and Ministerial Co-construction of Collaborative Innovation Center for Non-ferrous Metal New Materials and Advanced Processing Technology, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang 471023, China.

PMID: 37556907
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.07.171

Abstract

As an important potential candidate for large-scale energy storage, rechargeable zinc metal batteries have become a research hotspot. Zn metal anodes are an extremely crucial component of rechargeable Zn metal batteries. However, the Zn dendrites, the evolution of hydrogen and side reactions on the surface of the Zn metal anodes severely hinder its commercial use. Here, we report a modified Zn metal anode with a layer of nitrogen-defective graphitic carbon nitride (NDCN) nanosheets coated onto a commercial Zn foil by a simple spraying method. The NDCN coating on the anode's surface not only provides zincophilic sites, but also drives the deposition of zinc with a particular crystallographic orientation. At the same time, the formation of zinc dendrites and the evolution of hydrogen were suppressed, which enhanced the reversibility of the anode. Thus, the symmetric cells with the NDCN-protected zinc foil (NDCN@Zn) electrodes remained stable for 2000 h at a current density of 5 mA cm^-2. More importantly, the long-term cycling performance of the full cell tested at 1 A g^-1 retained approximately 88 % of its capacity even after 2300 cycles. This simple but effective method will provide a reference for future studies on protecting the anodes of zinc metal batteries.

Keywords: Nitrogen-defective graphitic carbon nitride; Special crystallographic orientation; Zinc metal anodes; Zinc metal batteries.