A NiCo bimetallic hydroxide electrode-based flexible Ni//Zn battery with smart electrochromic function for visually monitoring battery residual electricity

• Published in: Science China materials Vol. 66; no. 2; pp. 567 - 576
• Main Authors: Xuan, Xiaoyang, Qian, Min, Pan, Likun, Lu, Ting, Gao, Yang, Niu, Yueping, Gong, Shangqing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Beijing Science China Press 01.02.2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Bimetals; Chemistry and Materials Science; Chemistry/Food Science; Color; Electricity; Electrochromism; Electrodes; Indium tin oxides; Inspection; Intermetallic compounds; Materials Science; Ni//Zn battery; battery residual electricity; electrochromic; flexible; NiCo bimetallic hydroxide
• ISSN: 2095-8226; 2199-4501
• DOI: 10.1007/s40843-022-2174-y

Flexible battery with a smart electrochromic function of changing color in the electrochemical process reveals great application potentials in the field of intelligent electronics. However, Ni//Zn battery with an electricity visual alerting function has seldom been reported by now. Herein, we designed a flexible Ni//Zn battery, assembled by the NiCo bimetallic hydroxide/Ni/indium tin oxide (NiCo BH/Ni/ITO) flexible electrode with an electrochromic feature. By optimizing the thickness of the middle Ni layer, the NiCo BH/Ni/ ITO electrode shows a coloration efficiency of 59.89 cm 2 C −1 and a capacity of 7.15 µA h cm −2 at a current density of 0.1 mA cm −2 . Correspondingly, the flexible electrochromic Ni//Zn battery shows a high energy density of 12.69 µW h cm −2 at a power density of 160 µW cm −2 , outperforming those of transparent flexible supercapacitors and electrochromic batteries reported in literatures. Moreover, the flexible electrochromic Ni//Zn battery displays reversible color change during charging and discharging processes, rendering it a novel function to monitor the battery residual electricity by visual inspection.