Delocalized Electron Engineering of MXene-Immobilized Atomic Catalysts toward Fast Desolvation and Dendritic Inhibition for Low-Temperature Zn Metal Batteries
Jing Zhang, Lu Pan, Lujie Jia, Jing Dong, Caiyin You, Chenxiao Han, Na Tian, Xiaomin Cheng, Bingbing Tang, Qinghua Guan, Yongzheng Zhang, Bo Deng, Lei Li, Meinan Liu, Hongzhen Lin, Jian Wang
Abstract
Rechargeable low-temperature aqueous zinc metal batteries (LT-AZMBs) are considered as a competitive candidate for next-generation energy storage systems owing to increased safety and low cost. Unfortunately, sluggish desolvation kinetics of hydrated [Zn(H 2 O) x ] 2+ and inhomogeneous ion flux cause detrimental hydrogen evolution reactions (HER) and Zn dendrite growth. Herein, the atomic iron well-implanted onto MXene via defect capture (SAFe@MXene) has been initially proposed to modulate Zn plating. The SAFe@MXene serves as kinetic promoters to enhance interfacial desolvation of [Zn(H 2 O) x ] 2+ to prevent HER and uniformizes Zn 2+ flux for smooth deposition, as confirmed by theoretical simulation, Raman and electrochemical tests. Consequently, under 0 °C, the SAFe@MXene-modulated Zn electrodes deliver long-term stability of 800 h with lower overpotentials even at 5 mA cm –2 or higher plating/stripping capacity. The full cell with a MnO 2 cathode stabilizes a high capacity-retention of nearly 100% after 1000 cycles at 1 A g –1, suggesting great promise for high-performance LT-AZMBs.