Homogeneous regulation of arranged polymorphic manganese dioxide nanocrystals as cathode materials for high-performance zinc-ion batteries

Wanwei Jiang; Wei Wang; Haiting Shi; Renzong Hu; Jie Hong; Yun Tong; Jun Ma; Cheng Jing Liang; Jingfu Peng; Zhiwei Xu

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2023.05.148

Homogeneous regulation of arranged polymorphic manganese dioxide nanocrystals as cathode materials for high-performance zinc-ion batteries

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2023 Oct:647:124-133. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.05.148. Epub 2023 May 24.

Authors

Wanwei Jiang¹, Wei Wang², Haiting Shi², Renzong Hu³, Jie Hong⁴, Yun Tong⁴, Jun Ma⁴, Cheng Jing Liang⁴, Jingfu Peng⁴, Zhiwei Xu⁵

Affiliations

¹ Jiangsu Advanced Textile Engineering Technology Center, Jiangsu College of Engineering and Technology, Jiangsu 226007, China. Electronic address: jww199112@163.com.
² State Key Laboratory of Separation Membranes and Membrane Processes, School of Textile Science and Engineering, Tiangong University, Tianjin 300387, China.
³ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Storage Materials, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China. Electronic address: msrenzonghu@scut.edu.cn.
⁴ Jiangsu Advanced Textile Engineering Technology Center, Jiangsu College of Engineering and Technology, Jiangsu 226007, China.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Separation Membranes and Membrane Processes, School of Textile Science and Engineering, Tiangong University, Tianjin 300387, China. Electronic address: xuzhiwei@tiangong.edu.cn.

PMID: 37247476
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.05.148

Abstract

Rechargeable aqueous zinc-ion batteries have emerged as attractive energy storage devices by virtue of their low cost, high safety and eco-friendliness. However, zinc-ion cathodes are bottlenecked by their vulnerable crystal structures in the process of zinc embedding and significant capacity fading during long-term cycling. Herein, we report the rational and homogeneous regulation of polycrystalline manganese dioxide (MnO₂) nanocrystals as zinc cathodes via a surfactant template-assisted strategy. Benefiting from the homogeneous regulation, MnO₂ nanocrystals with an ordered crystal arrangement, including nanorod-like polyvinylpyrrolidone-manganese dioxide (PVP-MnO₂), nanowire-like sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate-manganese dioxide and nanodot-like cetyltrimethylammonium bromide-manganese dioxide, are obtained. Among these, the nanorod-like PVP-MnO₂ nanocrystals exhibit stable long-life cycling of 210 mAh g^-1 over 180 cycles at a high rate of 0.3 A g^-1 and with a high capacity retention of 84% over 850 cycles at a high rate of 1 A g^-1. The good performance of this cathode significantly results from the facile charge and mass transfer at the interface between the electrode and electrolyte, featuring the crystal stability and uniform morphology of the arranged MnO₂ nanocrystals. This work provides crucial insights into the development of advanced MnO₂ cathodes for low-cost and high-performance rechargeable aqueous zinc-ion batteries.

Keywords: Crystal stability; Homogeneous regulation; Polycrystalline manganese dioxide (MnO(2)) nanocrystals; Template assisted; Uniform morphology; Zinc-ion batteries.