Revitalizing Dead Zinc with Ferrocene/Ferrocenium Redox Chemistry for Deep-Cycle Zinc Metal Batteries

• Published in: Angewandte Chemie International Edition p. e202412989
• Main Authors: Qian, Xiaohu, Chen, Tao, Wang, Yinan, Zhang, Qianjin, Li, Wenqi, Fu, Jiajun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Germany 22.10.2024
• Subjects: zinc metal anode; deep-cycle zinc metal batteries; revitalizing dead zinc; ferrocene/ferrocenium redox
• ISSN: 1433-7851; 1521-3773; 1521-3773
• DOI: 10.1002/anie.202412989

Aqueous zinc (Zn) batteries are highly desirable for sustainable and large-scale electrochemical energy storage technologies. However, the ceaseless dendrite growth and the derived dead Zn are principally responsible for the capacity decay and insufficient lifespan. Here, we propose a dissolved oxygen-initiated revitalization strategy to reactivate dead Zn via ferrocene redox chemistry, which can be realized by incorporating a trace amount of poly(ethylene glycol) as a solubilizer to improve the solubility of water-insoluble ferrocene derivatives. Ferrocene scaffold can be spontaneously oxidized to ferricenium cations by dissolved oxygen, which eradicates the dissolved oxygen-involved Zn corrosion and insulating by-product generation. Subsequently, the generated ferricenium cations as the scavenger can rejuvenate electrically isolated dead Zn into electroactive Zn2+ ions to compensate the zinc loss. Through this design, the symmetric cell exhibited improved cycle life of 3700 h at 10 mA cm-2, and 220 h under a high depth of discharge of 80%. Importantly, the Zn||NaV3O8·1.5H2O full cells demonstrated the impressive cycling stability over 1000 cycles at a low N/P ratio of 3.0. This work presents an innovative solution for the revitalization of dead Zn to extend the lifespan of deep-cycling metal batteries.