Construction of Phosphorus‐Functionalized Multichannel Carbon Interlayers for Dendrite‐Free Metallic Zn Anodes

• Published in: Energy & environmental materials (Hoboken, N.J.) Vol. 7; no. 5; pp. 95 - n/a
• Main Authors: He, Liang, Zhang, Qingyin, Li, He, Liu, Shiping, Cheng, Ting, Zhang, Ruoxuan, Wang, Yujia, Zhang, Peng, Shi, Zhiqiang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.09.2024; Tianjin Key Laboratory of Advanced Fibers and Energy Storage,School of Materials Science and Engineering,Tiangong University,Tianjin 300387,China; School of Chemical Engineering and Technology,Tiangong University,Tianjin 300387,China%Tianjin Lishen Battery Joint-Stock CO.,LTD,Tianjin 300387,China; Cangzhou Institute of Tiangong University,Cangzhou 061000,China%Cangzhou Institute of Tiangong University,Cangzhou 061000,China
• Subjects: Activated carbon; Anodes; aqueous Zn‐ion supercapacitors; Carbon; Carbon cycle; Cathodes; Dendrites; Electrochemical analysis; Electrochemistry; Functional groups; Interlayers; Life span; multichannel carbon fiber; Nucleation; Phosphorus; phosphorus functionalized; Specific capacity; Zinc; Zn dendrite; Zn metal anode; aqueous Zn-ion supercapacitors; Zn metal anode; Zn dendrite; multichannel carbon fiber; phosphorus functionalized
• ISSN: 2575-0356; 2575-0348; 2575-0356
• DOI: 10.1002/eem2.12689

Zn metal anodes are usually subject to grave dendrite growth during platting/stripping, which dramatically curtails the lifespan of aqueous Zn‐ion batteries and capacitors. To address above problems, in our work, a novel phosphorus‐functionalized multichannel carbon interlayer was designed and covered on Zn anodes. The results demonstrated that the multichannel structure combined with the three‐dimensional meshy skeleton can provide more sufficient space for Zn deposition, thereby effectively inhibiting the growth of zinc dendrites. Meanwhile, theoretical calculations also confirmed that the P–C and P=O functional groups from phosphorus‐functionalized multichannel carbon interlayer have the decisive influence in reducing the zinc nucleation potential and depositing uniformly zinc. Concretely, the symmetrical battery assembled with phosphorus‐functionalized multichannel carbon interlayer‐covered Zn anodes possessed a long lifetime of 3300 h at 2 mA cm−2 with 1 mAh cm−2. Furthermore, the full cell with activated carbon cathodes exhibited a high specific capacity of 80.5 mAh g−1 and outstanding cycling stability without capacity decay after 15 000 cycles at a high current density of 5 A g−1. The superior electrochemical performance exceeded that of most reported papers. Consequently, our synthesized zincophilic interlayer with the unique structure has superior prospects for application in stabilizing zinc anodes and prolonging the lifespan of batteries. The phosphorus‐functionalized multichannel carbon interlayers were covered on Zn anodes to prolong lifespan of batteries (3300 h), which exceeded most reported works. Not only did the P–C and P=O functional groups provide many nucleation sites for Zn growth, but the multichannel structure combined with the three‐dimensional meshy skeleton also provided more sufficient space for Zn deposition.