Regulating Zinc Deposition via Zincophilic 2D‐Cu2Te as the Current Collector to Suppress Dendrite Formation toward High Performance Aqueous Zinc‐Ion Batteries

• Published in: Batteries & supercaps Vol. 6; no. 8
• Main Authors: Tsai, Ming‐Hsuan, Lin, Tuan‐Yue, Su, Tian‐Shun, Chen, Guan‐Min, Liu, Yu‐chen, Chen, Yu‐Ze
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.08.2023
• Subjects: aqueous zinc-ion batteries; machine learning; tellurization; Zn dendrite; δ-Cu2Te flakes
• ISSN: 2566-6223; 2566-6223
• DOI: 10.1002/batt.202300107

In this study, we synthesized standing 2D δ‐Cu2Te flakes (δ‐CTFs) via a facile post‐tellurization process, which served as the current collector to accommodate zinc (Zn) for AZIBs. These flakes exhibited low nucleation overpotential and low interfacial impedance, facilitating the plating/stripping of Zn ions. Interestingly, the hydrophilicity and standing structure of δ‐CTFs guided the electrodeposited Zn to laterally grow on the surface of δ‐CTFs, effectively suppressing Zn dendrite formation. The Zn@δ‐CTFs anode exhibited a long‐term cycling duration of 510 hours in a symmetric cell, which is far superior to previous reports. Even under high current density of 10 mA cm−2, the anode was able to perform stably with a cycle life of 110 hours. The machine learning model was exploited to predict the effective charge value, discovering that Zn migrated in Cu2Te were subject to the larger driving force of migration under applied field. Finally, the Zn@δ‐CTFs//MnO2 full battery exhibited excellent rate‐dependent capacity and maintained a capacity of 100 mAh g−1 after 1000 cycles at a current density of 1 A g−1, without Zn dendrite formation. This research provides a new strategy for regulating Zn deposition to address dendrite issues toward long lifespan AZIBs. Zincophilic δ‐Cu2Te flakes (δ‐CTFs) synthesized via the post‐tellurization process is exploited as a current collector for aqueous zinc‐ion batteries (AZIB). Benefitting from the zincophilicity and 3D structuring surface, Zn@δ‐CTFs symmetric cells delivered the long lifespan up to 510 hours under the the ZUR of 10 %. Finally, the full cells displayed the initial specific capacity of 210 mAh g−1 and retained 170 mAh g−1 after 300 cycles. The work provides a new strategy for guiding the Zn electrodeposition to suppress the dendrite growth toward the high‐performance AZIB.