High-performance alkaline aqueous zinc battery enabled by nickel-cobalt-tellurium materials

Abstract

The capacity and cycling performance of cathodes are key factors in aqueous zinc batteries (AZBs). The search for cathode materials with long cycle lives and high specific capacities is of paramount importance. In this study, a bimetallic telluride with a hollow polyhedral structure was synthesized using a hydrothermal method followed by vapor deposition. This composite exhibits high conductivity, facilitates rapid diffusion of electrolyte ions into the interior, and accelerates redox reactions, thereby enhancing electrochemical performance. The CoTe₂-NiTe₂ electrode demonstrates an impressive specific capacity of 188.8 mAh/g at 1 A/g, highlighting its efficiency in storing a significant amount of charge per unit mass during electrochemical reactions. The assembled CoTe₂-NiTe₂//Zn battery shows favorable capacity retention (76.4%) after 10000 cycles. The energy density is remarkably high, reaching 290.3 Wh/kg, while maintaining a power density of 1.75 kW/kg. This bimetallic telluride strategy holds great promise as an alternative cathode for AZBs.

Keywords

Aqueous zinc battery / Alkaline / Nickel-cobalt-tellurium / Hollow structure / Long cycling life

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Na Li: Writing - original draft. Chenggang Wang: Writing - review & editing. Xixi Zhang: Writing - review & editing. Chuanlin Li: Writing - review & editing. Guangmeng Qu: Writing - review & editing. Xiao Wang: Conceptualization. Xijin Xu: Supervision.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Joint Funds of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. U22A20140), the University of Jinan Disciplinary Cross-Convergence Construction Project 2023 (No. XKJC-202309), the Jinan City School Integration Development Strategy Project (No. JNSX2023015), the Independent Cultivation Program of Innovation Team of Jinan City (No. 202333042), and the Youth Innovation Group Plan of Shandong Province (No. 2022KJ095). All the authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

Supplementary materials

Supplementary material associated with this article can be found, in the online version, at doi:10.1016/j.chphma.2024.06.005.

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