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A widely used nonionic surfactant with desired functional groups as aqueous electrolyte additives for stabilizing Zn anode

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Abstract

Aqueous Zn-ion batteries (AZIBs) have emerged as potential candidates for Li-ion batteries due to their intrinsic safety and high capacity. However, metallic Zn anodes encounter dendrite growth and water-induced corrosion, rendering poor stability and severe irreversibility at the electrode/electrolyte interface during cycling. To stabilize the Zn anode, we report a low-cost and effective nonionic surfactant, Tween-20 polymer, as an electrolyte additive for AZIBs. For Tween-20, sequential oxyethylene groups tended to be preferentially adsorbed on the Zn electrode to form a shielding layer for regulating uniform Zn nucleation. Moreover, the hydrophobic hendecyl chains prevented H2O-induced corrosion on the Zn anode surface. Benefiting from the desired functional groups, when only trace amounts of Tween-20 (0.050 g·L−1) were used, the Zn anode displayed good cycling stability over 2170 h at 10 mA·cm−2 and a high average Coulombic efficiency of 98.94% over 1000 cycles. The Tween-20 polymer can also be effectively employed in MnO2/Zn full batteries. Considering their toxicity, price and amount of usage, these surfactant additives provide a promising strategy for realizing the stability and reversibility of high-performance Zn anodes.

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摘要

水系锌离子电池 (AZIBs) 因其固有的安全性和高的比容量成为锂离子电池的潜在候选者之一。然而，金属锌负极在循环过程中会发生枝晶生长和自腐蚀等现象，从而导致电极/电解质界面差的稳定性和不可逆性。为了稳定金属锌负极，本文报道了一种低成本、有效的的非离子表面活性剂 (Tween-20) 作为AZIBs电解液添加剂。在Tween-20中，有序的氧乙烯基团倾向于优先吸附在锌电极上，形成可调控锌均匀成核的屏蔽层。此外，疏水性的十六烷基链能够有效地阻止锌电极表面的腐蚀。因此，在使用微量Tween-20 (0.05 g·L−1) 时，锌负极在10 mA·cm−2 电流密度下能够实现较长的稳定循环 (2170 h), 且在1000次循环内**均库仑效率高达98.94%。与此同时，Tween-20聚合物也可以有效地应用于MnO2/Zn全电池。综合考量Tween-20的毒性、经济性和添加剂用量，该表面活性添加剂为开发高可逆、高稳定锌金属负极提供了一种好的策略

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 22102157 and U1910208), the Natural Science Foundation of Shanxi Province of China (Nos. 20210302124097 and 20210302124663), the Opening Foundation of Shanxi Provincial Key Laboratory for High Performance Battery Materials and Devices (No. 2022HPBMD02002), the Graduate Student Innovation Program of North University of China (No. 20221871) and the Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province of China (No. 2022CFB577).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Energy and Power Engineering, North University of China, Taiyuan, 030051, China

    Yue-**an Song, **ao-Feng Wang, Cai-Bin Liu, Kai-Xuan Guo, Xu-Huan Guo, **ao-Bin Zhong, Yao-Hui Zhang, Kai Wang & Jun-Fei Liang

  2. Key Laboratory of Green Chemical Process of Ministry of Education, Hubei Key Laboratory of Novel Chemical Reactor and Green Chemical Technology, School of Chemical Engineering and Pharmacy, Wuhan Institute of Technology, Wuhan, 430073, China

    Hui-Juan Guo

  3. Shanxi Provincial Key Laboratory for High Performance Battery Materials and Devices, Taiyuan, 030051, China

    Li-**n Zhang

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  1. Yue-**an Song
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Song, YX., Wang, XF., Liu, CB. et al. A widely used nonionic surfactant with desired functional groups as aqueous electrolyte additives for stabilizing Zn anode. Rare Met. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12598-024-02754-1

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