Highly stable and low-temperature-tolerant zinc ion storage enabled by carbitol electrolyte additive engineering

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2023 Feb;631(Pt A):17-24. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.10.127. Epub 2022 Oct 29.

Abstract

Aqueous zinc (Zn)-ion energy storage system is widely regarded as a promising candidate for future electrochemical energy storage applications but suffers insufficient lifespan and limited operating temperature. To address these issues, we introduce a carbitol additive for a novel hybrid electrolyte to enhance cycling stability and temperature adaptability by optimizing the coordination structure of Zn ion. The modified electrolyte not only restrains the hydrogen evolution, but also promotes a high-orientation Zn deposition and significantly limits the Zn dendrite growth. Taking advantage of improved electrolyte properties, the Zn symmetric cells with 10 % carbitol-modified electrolyte exhibit long-term cycle stability for 5000 h at 25 °C, and 400 h at -10 °C. More notably, the carbitol-modified electrolyte endows a stable reversible capacitance for Zn ion hybrid supercapacitors to be operated at different temperatures. Our work affords a reasonable electrolyte engineering strategy to fabricate a highly stable and low-temperature-tolerant Zn ion storage system.

Keywords: Carbitol; Electrolyte additive engineering; Low-temperature performances; Solvation structure; Zn ion hybrid supercapacitor.

MeSH terms

  • Electric Capacitance
  • Electrolytes*
  • Temperature
  • Zinc* / chemistry

Substances

  • Zinc
  • carbitol
  • Electrolytes