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Vol. 15 (2023)

Aqueous Zinc Batteries with Ultra-Fast Redox Kinetics and High Iodine Utilization Enabled by Iron Single Atom Catalysts

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-023-01093-7
Xueya Yang
State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, People’s Republic of China
Huiqing Fan
State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, People’s Republic of China
Fulong Hu
Frontiers Science Center for Flexible Electronics, Institute of Flexible Electronics, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, People’s Republic of China
Shengmei Chen
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, 83 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon 999077, Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China
Kang Yan
State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, People’s Republic of China
Longtao Ma
Frontiers Science Center for Flexible Electronics, Institute of Flexible Electronics, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, People’s Republic of China

Corresponding Author: Longtao Ma

iamltma@nwpu.edu.cn

Nano-Micro Letters, Vol. 15 (2023), Article Number: 126

Abstract

Rechargeable aqueous zinc iodine (ZnǀǀI2) batteries have been promising energy storage technologies due to low-cost position and constitutional safety of zinc anode, iodine cathode and aqueous electrolytes. Whereas, on one hand, the low-fraction utilization of electrochemically inert host causes severe shuttle of soluble polyiodides, deficient iodine utilization and sluggish reaction kinetics. On the other hand, the usage of high mass polar electrocatalysts occupies mass and volume of electrode materials and sacrifices device-level energy density. Here, we propose a “confinement-catalysis” host composed of Fe single atom catalyst embedding inside ordered mesoporous carbon host, which can effectively confine and catalytically convert I2/I− couple and polyiodide intermediates. Consequently, the cathode enables the high capacity of 188.2 mAh g−1 at 0.3 A g−1, excellent rate capability with a capacity of 139.6 mAh g−1 delivered at high current density of 15 A g−1 and ultra-long cyclic stability over 50,000 cycles with 80.5% initial capacity retained under high iodine loading of 76.72 wt%. Furthermore, the electrocatalytic host can also accelerate the I+↔I2 conversion. The greatly improved electrochemical performance originates from the modulation of physicochemical confinement and the decrease of energy barrier for reversible I−/I2 and I2/I+ couples, and polyiodide intermediates conversions.


Highlights:


1 The porous structure and interconnected conductive pathways accommodate a large amount of iodine, entrap polyiodides and guarantee its efficient utilization. While the Fe single atom catalyst efficiently catalyzes the iodine/polyiodide conversion.
2 With “confinement-catalysis” host, the ZnǀǀI2 battery delivers a high capacity of 188.2 mAh g−1 at 0.3 A g−1, excellent rate capability with a capacity of 139.6 mAh g−1 at 15 A g−1 and ultra-long cyclic stability over 50,000 cycles with 80.5% initial capacity retained under high iodine loading of 76.72 wt%.

Keywords

Aqueous zinc batteries Iodine reduction reaction Fe single atom catalysts
Yang, Xueya, Huiqing Fan, Fulong Hu, Shengmei Chen, Kang Yan, and Longtao Ma. 2023. “Aqueous Zinc Batteries With Ultra-Fast Redox Kinetics and High Iodine Utilization Enabled by Iron Single Atom Catalysts”. Nano-Micro Letters 15 (May):126. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-023-01093-7.
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