Research of the transition from a aqueous zinc ion battery to an aqueous hydrogen proton battery triggered by the Cu@Cu31S16 cathode material development
Zhenyu Hu, Li Lin, Yi Jiang, Lianshan Sun, Qingshuang Wang, Jianxun Zhao, Peng Chen, Xinwei Wang, Heng Liu, Wanqiang Liu, Chunpeng Yang, Fang Wang, Wei Liu
Abstract
The aqueous zinc ion battery (AZIB) has been widely studied due to its rapid kinetics and high specific capacity attributed to the chemical insertion of H + protons. However, the current research landscape lacks comprehensive investigations into copper-based sulfide materials and the intricate co-embedding/extraction mechanism of H + /Zn 2+ . In this study, we employed an innovative in-situ etching method to synthesize a current collector-integrated Cu@Cu 31 S 16 cathode material. Cu 31 S 16 not only exhibits excellent stability and conductivity but also activates proton insertion chemistry. Consequently, we have demonstrated, for the first time, efficient and reversible co-embedding/extraction behavior of H + /Zn 2+ in Zn-Cu 31 S 16 batteries. Specifically, owing to the lower charging and discharging plateaus of zinc ions (0.65 V, 0.45 V) compared to H + (0.97 V, 0.84 V) in Zn-Cu 31 S 16 batteries, two distinct plateaus were observed. Moreover, we delved into the mechanism of ion co-embedding/extraction by exploring different ions (Zn 2+ , H + /Zn 2+ , H + ) within varying voltage ranges. This exploration led to the development of three types of ion batteries, where Zn 2+ , H + /Zn 2+ , and H + exhibit co-embedding/extraction within voltage ranges of 0.3–0.9 V, 0.3–1.05 V, and 0.5–1.05 V, respectively. These batteries have achieved impressive performance with specific capacities of 282.74 mAh g −1 , 587.4 mAh g −1 and 687.3 mAh g −1 , respectively. Introducing the concept of “Voltage-Selective Ion Co-Embedding/Extraction”, this study broadens the research scope of AZIBs . This research not only offers a feasible solution and theoretical guidance for future proton batteries but also underscores the tremendous potential of AHPB.