Van der Waals Interaction-Driven Self-Assembly of V<sub>2</sub>O<sub>5</sub>Nanoplates and MXene for High-Performing Zinc-Ion Batteries by Suppressing Vanadium Dissolution
Huan Liu, Lin Jiang, Bin Cao, Huiling Du, H. J. Lü, Yu Ma, Hao Wang, Hongyu Guo, Qizheng Huang, Bin Xu, Shaojun Guo
Abstract
Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) are attractive energy storage devices that benefit from improved safety and negligible environmental impact. The V2O5-based cathodes are highly promising, but the dissolution of vanadium is one of the major challenges in realizing their stable performance in AZIBs. Herein, we design a Ti3C2Tx MXene layer on the surface of V2O5 nanoplates (VPMX) through a van der Waals self-assembly approach for suppressing vanadium dissolution during an electrochemical process for greatly boosting the zinc-ion storage performance. Unlike conventional V2O5/C composites, we demonstrate that the VPMX hybrids offer three distinguishable features for achieving high-performance AZIBs: (i) the MXene layer on cathode surface maintains structural integrity and suppresses V dissolution; (ii) the heterointerface between V2O5 and MXene enables improved host electrochemical kinetics; (iii) reduced electrostatic repulsion exists among host layers owing to the lubricating water molecules in the VPMX cathode, facilitating interfacial Zn2+ diffusion. As a result, the as-made VPMX cathode shows a long-term cycling stability over 5000 cycles, surpassing other reported V2O5-based materials. Especially, we find that the heterointerface between V2O5 and MXene and lubricated water molecules in the host can achieve an enhanced rate capability (243.6 mAh g–1 at 5.0 A g–1) for AZIBs.