Oxygen-deficient NiCo2O4 nanowires as the robust cathode for high-performance nickel–zinc batteries

• Published in: Journal of materials research Vol. 37; no. 13; pp. 2185 - 2194
• Main Authors: Zhang, Peng, Xie, Shilei, Deng, Penghui, Huang, Simin, Li, Yangping, Liu, Zhimeng, Wang, Yan-Jie, Lu, Xihong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 14.07.2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Applied and Technical Physics; Biomaterials; Carbon; Charge transfer; Chemistry and Materials Science; Cloth; Electrodes; Inorganic Chemistry; Ion transport; Materials Engineering; Materials research; Materials Science; Nanotechnology; Nanowires; Nickel compounds; Oxygen; Transport rate; Zinc
• ISSN: 0884-2914; 2044-5326
• DOI: 10.1557/s43578-022-00512-6

In this work, NiCo 2 O 4 nanowires on carbon cloth are successfully fabricated by a simple two-step method hydrothermal and subsequent annealing under different gas (air and N 2 , respectively named A-NiCo 2 O 4 and N-NiCo 2 O 4 ) atmosphere for NiCo 2 O 4 //Zn battery. The obtained N-NiCo 2 O 4 nanowires exhibit freestanding on the carbon cloth with of 40 nm. Due to the unique structure features, N-NiCo 2 O 4 //Zn batteries can supply the initial capacity of 169.5 mAh g −1 at 3.45 A g −1 and excellent cycling stability of 87.6% retention, better than 139.8 mAh g −1 and 68.1% capacity retention of A-NiCo 2 O 4 //Zn battery. The results of electrochemical impedance analysis show that much higher charge transfer rate on electrode and faster ion transport rate at the interface between electrode and electrolyte for N-NiCo 2 O 4 than that of for A-NiCo 2 O 4 electrode, which is owing to the freestanding nanostructure and oxygen defects introduction of N-NiCo 2 O 4 nanowires. Graphical abstract