(Invited) Deeply Rechargeable Zinc Anodes for High-Energy Rechargeable Aqueous Batteries

Abstract

Zinc-based aqueous batteries are promising alternative to many mainstream battery technologies today, due to the superior safety and broad availability of raw materials. However, existing zinc anodes suffer from either poor cycle life or low utilization in both neutral and alkaline aqueous electrolytes. Passivation, dissolution, and hydrogen evolution are three main reasons for irreversibility of zinc anodes in alkaline electrolytes, which limits the rechargeability and usable energy density. In this talk, I will present our recent works on using nanoscale material design to overcome passivation, dissolution, and hydrogen evolution issues of zinc anode, towards a deeply rechargeable zinc-based battery. I will also introduce the battery-gas chromatography quantitative analysis, as well as in situ microscopy methodologies we have developed, to quantify gas evolution side reaction, as well as visualize the reaction on electrodes during operation.