skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Highly Reversible Plating/Stripping of Porous Zinc Anodes for Multivalent Zinc Batteries

Journal Article · · Journal of the Electrochemical Society (Online)
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [3];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States). Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL)
  2. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
  3. Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States); National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Zinc continues to garner immense interest due to its versatility as an anode material in several configurations utilizing either alkaline or mild-pH electrolytes. Current research on using mild-pH electrolytes has improved the rechargeability aspect of Zn-based batteries since Zn2+ is solely utilized for plating/stripping of Zn. Several studies have incorporated Zn metal foils, yet, dramatic improvements can be achieved by expressing Zn as a porous structure. Herein, we use a quasi-pulsed electrodeposition process to prepare a conformal Zn coating onto 3D porous copper foam. By tuning the electrodeposition parameters, we achieved an optimal Zn coating that undergoes reversible plating/stripping when tested in symmetric Zn cells, which supported a low overpotential of ~60 mV for up to 100 cycles. We further investigated changes in the surface morphology by studying the Zn surface of both foil and 3D structure using scanning electron microscopy and X-ray micro-computed tomography. Both techniques showed that the Zn foil undergoes dramatic alterations at the surface, which results in inhomogeneous deposition of Zn, whereas the 3D form exhibited minimal changes. Lastly, we paired both Zn foil and 3D Zn with vanadium oxide and demonstrated that the porous structure supports high rate capability and high specific capacity.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Graduate Student Research Program; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship Program
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515; AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
1769403
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1737546
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA-5K00-78618; TRN: US2206749
Journal Information:
Journal of the Electrochemical Society (Online), Vol. 167, Issue 14; ISSN 1945-7111
Publisher:
IOP PublishingCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (39)

Nanoscale design of zinc anodes for high-energy aqueous rechargeable batteries journal June 2019
A ZnCl 2 water-in-salt electrolyte for a reversible Zn metal anode journal January 2018
3D Porous Copper Skeleton Supported Zinc Anode toward High Capacity and Long Cycle Life Zinc Ion Batteries journal January 2019
Recent Progress in the Electrolytes of Aqueous Zinc‐Ion Batteries journal September 2019
Rechargeable zinc batteries journal May 1984
Principals and strategies for constructing a highly reversible zinc metal anode in aqueous batteries journal August 2020
Homogeneous Deposition of Zinc on Three-Dimensional Porous Copper Foam as a Superior Zinc Metal Anode journal September 2019
Odyssey of Multivalent Cathode Materials: Open Questions and Future Challenges journal February 2017
Recent Advances in Zn-Ion Batteries journal August 2018
Robust 3D Zn Sponges Enable High-Power, Energy-Dense Alkaline Batteries journal December 2018
Zinc Electrode Shape Change journal January 1991
Energetic Zinc Ion Chemistry: The Rechargeable Zinc Ion Battery journal December 2011
ZnCl 2 “Water‐in‐Salt” Electrolyte Transforms the Performance of Vanadium Oxide as a Zn Battery Cathode journal May 2019
Fibrous zinc anodes for high power batteries journal December 2006
Zinc-ion batteries: Materials, mechanisms, and applications journal January 2019
Zn/MnO 2 Battery Chemistry With H + and Zn 2+ Coinsertion journal July 2017
Recent Advances in Aqueous Zinc-Ion Batteries journal September 2018
Aqueous rechargeable zinc/sodium vanadate batteries with enhanced performance from simultaneous insertion of dual carriers journal April 2018
A Room‐Temperature Molten Hydrate Electrolyte for Rechargeable Zinc–Air Batteries journal April 2019
Electrodeposited Zinc-Based Films as Anodes for Aqueous Zinc Batteries journal August 2020
Design strategies for nonaqueous multivalent-ion and monovalent-ion battery anodes journal February 2020
TauFactor: An open-source application for calculating tortuosity factors from tomographic data journal January 2016
Electrodeposition of Gold to Conformally Fill High-Aspect-Ratio Nanometric Silicon Grating Trenches: A Comparison of Pulsed and Direct Current Protocols journal January 2015
Combining battery-like and pseudocapacitive charge storage in 3D MnO x @carbon electrode architectures for zinc-ion cells journal January 2018
Wiring zinc in three dimensions re-writes battery performance—dendrite-free cycling journal January 2014
Hyper-dendritic nanoporous zinc foam anodes journal April 2015
Engineering Analysis of Shape Change in Zinc Secondary Electrodes journal January 1976
Spatially homogeneous copper foam as surface dendrite-free host for zinc metal anode journal January 2020
A Phase-Field Model of Dendrite Growth of Electrodeposited Zinc journal January 2019
Rechargeable aqueous zinc-manganese dioxide batteries with high energy and power densities journal September 2017
Quest for Nonaqueous Multivalent Secondary Batteries: Magnesium and Beyond journal October 2014
Reversible aqueous zinc/manganese oxide energy storage from conversion reactions journal April 2016
Highly reversible zinc metal anode for aqueous batteries journal April 2018
Multivalent rechargeable batteries journal July 2019
Rechargeable nickel–3D zinc batteries: An energy-dense, safer alternative to lithium-ion journal April 2017
Benchmarking Anode Concepts: The Future of Electrically Rechargeable Zinc–Air Batteries journal May 2019
The Anodic Behavior of Planar and Porous Zinc Electrodes in Alkaline Electrolyte journal January 2010
Issues and opportunities facing aqueous zinc-ion batteries journal January 2019
Multivalent Batteries—Prospects for High Energy Density: Ca Batteries journal February 2019