Vanadium oxide cathode with synergistic engineering of calcium-ion intercalation and polyaniline coating for high performance zinc-ion batteries

Abstract

Vanadium oxides as cathode for zinc-ion batteries have attracted much attention because of their high theoretical capacity, flexible layered structure and abundant resources. However, cathodes are susceptible to the collapse of their layered structure and the dissolution of vanadium after repeated long cycles, which worsen their capacities and cycling stabilities. Herein, a synergistic engineering of calcium-ion intercalation and polyaniline coating was developed to achieve the superior electrochemical performance of vanadium pentoxide for zinc-ion batteries. The pre-intercalation of calcium-ion between vanadium pentoxide layers as pillars increase the crystal structure’s stability, while the polyaniline coating on the cathodes improves the conductivity and inhibits the dissolution of vanadium. This synergistic engineering enables that the battery system based-on the polyaniline coated calcium vanadate cathode to deliver a high capacity of 406.4 mAh·g⁻¹ at 1 A·g⁻¹, an ultralong cycle life over 6000 cycles at 10 A·g⁻¹ with 93% capacity retention and high-rate capability. The vanadium oxide cathode with synergistic engineering of calcium-ion intercalation and polyaniline coating was verified to effectively improve the electrochemical performance of zinc-ion batteries.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

zinc-ion battery / CaV₈O₂₀ / polyaniline coating / synergistic engineering / high capacity / long durability

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 22101309, 52103277 and U1804126), the Key Scientific and Technological Project of Henan Province (Grant No. 222102240001), and the Startup Research of Henan Academy of Sciences (Grant No. 231817001).

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11705-022-2293-5 and is accessible for authorized users.

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