Potentiodynamics of the Zinc and Proton Storage in Disordered Sodium Vanadate for Aqueous Zn-Ion Batteries

• Published in: ACS applied materials & interfaces Vol. 12; no. 49; pp. 54627 - 54636
• Main Authors: Shan, Xiaoqiang, Kim, SaeWon, Abeykoon, A. M. Milinda, Kwon, Gihan, Olds, Daniel, Teng, Xiaowei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 09.12.2020; American Chemical Society (ACS)
• Subjects: Energy, Environmental, and Catalysis Applications; MATERIALS SCIENCE; aqueous battery; sequential intercalation; synchrotron X-ray analysis; zinc storage; proton storage
• ISSN: 1944-8244; 1944-8252
• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.0c15621

A rechargeable Zn-ion battery is a promising aqueous system, where coinsertion of Zn2+ and H+ could address the obstacles of the sluggish ionic transport in cathode materials imposed by multivalent battery chemistry. However, there is a lack of fundamental understanding of this dual-ion transport, especially the potentiodynamics of the storage process. Here, a quantitative analysis of Zn2+ and H+ transport in a disordered sodium vanadate (NaV3O8) cathode material has been reported. Collectively, synchrotron X-ray analysis shows that both Zn2+ and H+ storages follow an intercalation storage mechanism in NaV3O8 and proceed in a sequential manner, where intercalations of 0.26 Zn2+ followed by 0.24 H+ per vanadium atom occur during discharging, while reverse dynamics happens during charging. Such a unique and synergistic dual-ion sequential storage favors a high capacity (265 mA h g–1) and an energy density (221 W h kg–1) based on the NaV3O8 cathode and a great cycling life (a capacity retention of 78% after 2000 cycles) in Zn/NaV3O8 full cells.