posted on 2021-05-06, 19:04authored byZehai Chen, Hongzhan Chen, Youcai Che, Luo Cheng, Hao Zhang, Jian Chen, Fangyan Xie, Nan Wang, Yanshuo Jin, Hui Meng
Aqueous
zinc-ion batteries are regarded as one of the new promising
rechargeable batteries. However, serious Zn dendrite growth causes
short-circuit issues in the batteries. Herein, we report that arginine
(Arg), a cationic surfactant electrolyte additive, can inhibit irregular
and nonplanar dendrite growth and induce uniform Zn deposition. It
shows a long cycle life (515 h) of Zn/Zn cells in the electrolyte
containing Arg, which is ∼10 times longer than that of the
electrolyte with no additive. The hydrolysis of Arg produces arginine
cations (Arg+), which will be preferentially adsorbed on
Zn dendrites due to the tip charge accumulation effect during the
Zn plating process. Arg+ increases the overpotential for
the nucleation of Zn dendrites and results in uniform Zn deposition.
After about 350 cycles, the MnO2/Zn cell shows 84.59% capacity
retention and 99.85% average Coulomb efficiency in the electrolyte
with the additive. The low-cost and nontoxic electrolyte additive
identified in this work provides a new pathway toward inducing regular
Zn deposition morphology.