Zn-Ion Batteries: Latest Advances and Prospects

A special issue of Batteries (ISSN 2313-0105). This special issue belongs to the section "Battery Materials and Interfaces: Anode, Cathode, Separators and Electrolytes or Others".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 November 2024 | Viewed by 1714

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Electrochemical Innovation Lab, Department of Chemical Engineering, University College London, London WC1E 7JE, UK
Interests: zinc-ion batteries; interface engineering; electrolyte additives; anode protection
Department of Chemistry, University of College London, London, UK
Interests: aqueous energy storage (Zn-ion batteries); fuel cells; metal-air batteries
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, UK
Interests: lithium-ion batteries; battery materials and characterisation; battery diagnostics and management; cooling and thermal management; multiphysics and multiscale modeling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In the past decade, Zinc-Ion Batteries (ZIBs) have garnered significant attention owing to their notable safety, cost-effectiveness, and environmentally friendly attributes. The rapid development of mild aqueous ZIBs has been a driving force behind the advancement of the energy storage system market. Nevertheless, the translation of ZIBs into commercial viability necessitates the resolution of formidable hurdles. Challenges encompassing the suboptimal coulombic efficiency and limited cycle life of Zn anodes, influenced by the emergence of dendrites and concurrent side reactions such as hydrogen evolution and corrosion, have considerably impeded their practical applicability. Furthermore, the energy storage mechanism of cathodes, particularly those based on Mn materials, remains insufficiently understood. Strategies aimed at enhancing electrode stability, achieved through interface modifications, electrolyte additives, and separator design, have emerged as prominent avenues via which to enhance the cycling longevity of ZIBs.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Understanding the energy storage mechanism for Mn-based or V-based cathodes for ZIBs through in situ or ex situ characterizations;
  • Proposal of strategies to stabilize the sluggish mechanism of cathodes;
  • Development of strategies able to stabilize the Zn anode with fewer side effects and less dendrite formation;
  • Development of novel approaches to observing the development of Zn anode dendrites through the integration of acoustic, optical, and electrical monitoring techniques;
  • Electrolyte modulation, using the lean additive strategy and deep-eutectic electrolytes;
  • Development of mitigating solutions to improve the stability of the cathode materials and the cathode–electrolyte interface;
  • Battery performance analysis for practical applications with high cathode mass loading and low N/P ratio (the capacity ratio between the anode and cathode).

Dr. Haobo Dong
Dr. Guanjie He
Dr. Jie Lin
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Batteries is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • zinc-ion batteries
  • electrolyte additives
  • Zn anode
  • cathode electrolyte interface
  • surface modification
  • separator design
  • interface monitoring

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

11 pages, 2624 KiB  
Article
Surface Modification Induces Oriented Zn(002) Deposition for Highly Stable Zinc Anode
by Hongfei Zhang, Fujie Li, Zijin Li, Liu Gao, Binghui Xu and Chao Wang
Batteries 2024, 10(6), 178; https://doi.org/10.3390/batteries10060178 - 24 May 2024
Viewed by 1124
Abstract
Aqueous zinc metal batteries (AZMBs) are considered a promising candidate for grid-scale energy storage systems owing to their high capacity, high safety and low cost. However, Zn anodes suffer from notorious dendrite growth and undesirable surface corrosion, severely hindering the commercialization of AZMBs. [...] Read more.
Aqueous zinc metal batteries (AZMBs) are considered a promising candidate for grid-scale energy storage systems owing to their high capacity, high safety and low cost. However, Zn anodes suffer from notorious dendrite growth and undesirable surface corrosion, severely hindering the commercialization of AZMBs. Herein, a strategy for engineering a dense ZnO coating layer on Zn anodes using the atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique is developed, aiming to improve its long-term cycling stability with fewer Zn dendrites. The surface-modified Zn anode (ZnO@Zn) exhibits an excellent long-cycling life (680 h) and stable coulombic efficiency when being used in a symmetric cell. Moreover, the ZnO@Zn electrode shows a high stability with almost no capacity decay after 1100 cycles at 2C in a full cell using MnO2 as the cathode. The ZnO coating is conducive to reducing corrosion and the generation of by-products, thus increasing the reversibility of Zn2+/Zn stripping/plating. Particularly, density functional theory (DFT) calculation results reveal that the ZnO coating layer could effectively lower the adsorption energy of the Zn(002) plane in ZnO@Zn, inducing the preferential deposition of Zn2+ towards the (002) crystal plane with fewer Zn dendrites. The surface ZnO coating protocol provides a promising approach to achieve a dendrite-free Zn anode for stable AZMBs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Zn-Ion Batteries: Latest Advances and Prospects)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop