An efficient electrolyte additive of 1,3,6-hexanetricarbonitrile for high performance aqueous zinc-ion batteries

Rui Wang; Liyang Liu; Shuhan Huang; Yuheng Wu; Xianghong Chen; Zhiyong Liang; Jiantie Xu

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2023.05.072

An efficient electrolyte additive of 1,3,6-hexanetricarbonitrile for high performance aqueous zinc-ion batteries

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2023 Sep 15:646:950-958. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.05.072. Epub 2023 May 16.

Authors

Rui Wang¹, Liyang Liu¹, Shuhan Huang¹, Yuheng Wu¹, Xianghong Chen¹, Zhiyong Liang², Jiantie Xu³

Affiliations

¹ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Environment and Pollution Control, National Engineering Laboratory for VOCs Pollution Control Technology and Equipment, School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China.
² School of Automotive Engineering, Guangdong Polytechnic of Industry and Commerce, Guangzhou 510510, China.
³ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Environment and Pollution Control, National Engineering Laboratory for VOCs Pollution Control Technology and Equipment, School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China; School of Physics and Optoelectronics, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China. Electronic address: jiantiexu@scut.edu.cn.

PMID: 37235940
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.05.072

Abstract

The growth of Zn dendrites and parasitic side reactions between electrode and electrolyte are major obstacles to the development of rechargeable aqueous zinc-ion batteries. To address these critical issues, the use of nitrile organic compounds as electrolyte additives holds great promise. Herein, for the first time, we prepared a small volume concentration (x) of 1,3,6-Hexanetricarbonitrile (HTCN-x) as additives into zinc trifluoromethanesulphonate (Zn(OTF)₂) electrolyte and studied their electrochemical properties in Zn||Zn_xV₂O₅·nH₂O (Zn||ZVO) cells. It was found that the strong interaction between H₂O and HTCN could significantly reduce the population of solvated H₂O outside the solvation sheath, leading to reduced side reactions in the aqueous Zn(OTF)₂ electrolyte. Moreover, the HTCN additive also facilitates the formation of strong and stable solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) film on the surface of the Zn anode, which effectively prevents the growth of Zn dendrites and the anode corrosion caused by the electrolyte. As a result, the HTCN-x (x = 0.3) electrolyte enabled the symmetrical Zn||Zn cell to cycle over 950 h at a current of 1 mA cm^-2 with a limited capacity of 1 mAh cm^-2. When the HTCN-0.3 electrolyte was used in Zn||ZVO cell, the cell delivered a high initial capacity of 355.6 mAh g^-1 at 0.1 A g^-1 and maintained a high capacity of 330.0 mAh g^-1 at 1 A g^-1 after 465 cycles.

Keywords: Electrolyte; Electrolyte additives; Organic compound; Zinc-ion batteries; Zn metal.