AgxZny Protective Coatings with Selective Zn2+/H+ Binding Enable Reversible Zn Anodes

Jiaxian Zheng; Xin Liu; Yuguo Zheng; Appala Naidu Gandi; Xiaoxiao Kuai; Zhoucheng Wang; Yunpei Zhu; Zechao Zhuang; Hanfeng Liang

doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c01706

Ag_xZn_y Protective Coatings with Selective Zn²⁺/H⁺ Binding Enable Reversible Zn Anodes

Nano Lett. 2023 Jul 12;23(13):6156-6163. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c01706. Epub 2023 Jun 28.

Authors

Jiaxian Zheng¹, Xin Liu¹, Yuguo Zheng¹, Appala Naidu Gandi², Xiaoxiao Kuai¹, Zhoucheng Wang¹, Yunpei Zhu³, Zechao Zhuang⁴, Hanfeng Liang¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Tan Kah Kee Innovation Laboratory (IKKEM), College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China.
² Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur, Jodhpur 342030, India.
³ Materials Science and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal 23955, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Department of Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, United States.

PMID: 37379517
DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c01706

Abstract

Zinc (Zn) metal anodes suffer from the dendrite growth and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in classical aqueous electrolytes, which severely limit their lifespan. We propose a rational design of Ag_xZn_y protective coatings with selective binding to Zn²⁺ against H⁺ to simultaneously regulate the Zn growth pattern and the HER kinetics. We further demonstrate that by tuning the composition of the Ag_xZn_y coating the Zn deposition behavior can be readily tuned from the conventional plating/stripping (on Zn-AgZn₃ coating) to alloying/dealloying (on Ag-AgZn coating), resulting in precise control of the Zn growth pattern. Moreover, the synergy of Ag and Zn further suppresses the competitive HER. As a result, the modified Zn anodes possess a significantly enhanced lifespan. This work provides a new strategy for enhancing the stability of Zn and potentially other metal anodes by precisely manipulating the binding strength of protons and metal charge carriers in aqueous batteries.

Keywords: AgxZny alloy; HER kinetics; Zn growth pattern regulation; Zn metal anode; surface protective coating.