Long-Lasting Zinc-Iodine Batteries with Ultrahigh Areal Capacity and Boosted Rate Capability Enabled by Nickel Single-Atom Electrocatalysts

Lianbo Ma; Guoyin Zhu; Ziwei Wang; Acheng Zhu; Konglin Wu; Bo Peng; Jie Xu; Donghong Wang; Zhong Jin

doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c01310

Long-Lasting Zinc-Iodine Batteries with Ultrahigh Areal Capacity and Boosted Rate Capability Enabled by Nickel Single-Atom Electrocatalysts

Nano Lett. 2023 Jun 14;23(11):5272-5280. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c01310. Epub 2023 Jun 1.

Authors

Lianbo Ma^{1

2}, Guoyin Zhu^{2

3}, Ziwei Wang¹, Acheng Zhu¹, Konglin Wu⁴, Bo Peng¹, Jie Xu¹, Donghong Wang¹, Zhong Jin²

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Anhui University of Technology, Maanshan, 243002, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Coordination Chemistry, MOE Key Laboratory of Mesoscopic Chemistry, MOE Key Laboratory of High Performance Polymer Materials and Technology, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Organic Materials, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, China.
³ Institute of Advanced Materials and Flexible Electronics (IAMFE), School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China.
⁴ Carbon Cycle and Emission Control Research Center of Low-Carbon Research Institute, Institute of Clean Energy and Advanced Nanocatalysis, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Anhui University of Technology, Maanshan, 243002, China.

PMID: 37260235
DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c01310

Abstract

Zinc-iodine (Zn-I₂) batteries have garnered significant attention for their high energy density, low cost, and inherent safety. However, several challenges, including polyiodide dissolution and shuttling, sluggish iodine redox kinetics, and low electrical conductivity, limit their practical applications. Herein, we designed a highly efficient electrocatalyst for Zn-I₂ batteries by uniformly dispersing Ni single atoms (NiSAs) on hierarchical porous carbon skeletons (NiSAs-HPC). In situ Raman analysis revealed that the conversion of soluble polyiodides (I₃^- and I₅^-) was significantly accelerated using NiSAs-HPC because of the remarkable electrocatalytic activity of NiSAs. The resulting Zn-I₂ batteries with NiSAs-HPC/I₂ cathodes delivered exceptional rate capability (121 mAh g^-1 at 50 C), and ultralong cyclic stability (over 40 000 cycles at 50 C). Even under 11.6 mg cm^-2 iodine, Zn-I₂ batteries still exhibited an impressive cyclic stability with a capacity retention of 93.4% and 141 mAh g^-1 after 10 000 cycles at 10 C.

Keywords: areal capacity; electrocatalyst; polyiodide; shuttle effect; zinc–iodine batteries.