Anode‐Free Zinc–Bromine Batteries Enabled by a Simple Prenucleation Strategy
Bibo Han, Xinhua Zheng, Shikai Liu, Song Wu, Jiashuo Yang, Sankui Xu, Zaichun Liu, Rui Wang, Faxing Wang, Yuping Wu
Abstract
Abstract The design of anode‐free zinc (Zn) batteries with high reversibility at high areal capacity has received significant attention recently, which is quietly challenging yet. Here, a Zn alloyed interface through electroplating is introduced, providing homogeneous Zn prenucleation sites to stabilize subsequent Zn nucleation and plating. By employing Zn–Cu alloy as a module, the complementary simulations and characterizations confirm that the prenucleation alloyed interfaces achieve a homogeneous electric field distribution and greatly enhance the stability of the Zn anode. Accordingly, the Zn//Zn–Cu@Cu half‐cells show a long cycle life of over 900 h and an average Coulombic efficiency (CE) of 99.8% at an areal capacity of 10 mAh cm −2 . The assembled anode‐free zinc–bromine (Zn–Br 2 ) battery exhibits an attractive stable cycling of 11 000 cycles at 1 mAh cm −2 , while over 1000 cycles at the higher areal capacity of 10 mAh cm −2 . Excitingly, the Zn–Br 2 pouch cell with a capacity of 1000 mAh operates stably over 50 cycles, and achieves successful integration with photovoltaic systems. This anode‐free Zn–Br 2 batteries constructed through a prenucleation strategy offer new insights into the potential for large‐scale energy storage applications.