Highly Flexible K-Intercalated MnO2 /Carbon Membrane for High-Performance Aqueous Zinc-Ion Battery Cathode

Jie Yang; Ge Yao; Zhiqiang Li; Yuhang Zhang; Lingzhi Wei; Helin Niu; Qianwang Chen; Fangcai Zheng

doi:10.1002/smll.202205544

Highly Flexible K-Intercalated MnO₂ /Carbon Membrane for High-Performance Aqueous Zinc-Ion Battery Cathode

Small. 2023 Jan;19(1):e2205544. doi: 10.1002/smll.202205544. Epub 2022 Nov 15.

Authors

Jie Yang^{1

2}, Ge Yao^{1

2}, Zhiqiang Li^{1

2}, Yuhang Zhang^{1

2}, Lingzhi Wei^{1

2}, Helin Niu², Qianwang Chen³, Fangcai Zheng^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Institutes of Physical Science and Information Technology, Key Laboratory of Structure and Functional Regulation of Hybrid Materials of Ministry of Education, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601, China.
² Key Laboratory of Functional Inorganic Material Chemistry of Anhui Province, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601, China.
³ Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Science at Microscale, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China.

PMID: 36377466
DOI: 10.1002/smll.202205544

Abstract

The layered MnO₂ is intensively investigated as one of the most promising cathode materials for aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs), but its commercialization is severely impeded by the challenging issues of the inferior intrinsic electronic conductivity and undesirable structural stability during the charge-discharge cycles. Herein, the lab-prepared flexible carbon membrane with highly electrical conductivity is first used as the matrix to generate ultrathin δ-MnO₂ with an enlarged interlayer spacing induced by the K⁺ -intercalation to potentially alleviate the structural damage caused by H⁺ /Zn²⁺ co-intercalation, resulting in a high reversible capacity of 190 mAh g^-1 at 3 A g^-1 over 1000 cycles. The in situ/ex-situ characterizations and electrochemical analysis confirm that the enlarged interlayer spacing can provide free space for the reversible deintercalation/intercalation of H⁺ /Zn²⁺ in the structure of δ-MnO₂ , and H⁺ /Zn²⁺ co-intercalation mechanism contributes to the enhanced charge storage in the layered K⁺ -intercalated δ-MnO₂ . This work provides a plausible way to construct a flexible carbon membrane-based cathode for high-performance AZIBs.

Keywords: K ion intercalation; MnO 2; carbon membranes; flexible electrodes; zinc-ion batteries.

Abstract

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