Direct Detection and Visualization of the H+ Reaction Process in a VO2 Cathode for Aqueous Zinc-Ion Batteries

作者：Zuo, Shiyong; Liu, Jun; He, Weixin; Osman, Sahar; Liu, Zhengbo; Xu, Xijun; Shen, Jiadong; Jiang, Wei; Liu, Jiangwen; Zeng, Zhiyuan; Zhu, Min^*

来源：Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 2021, 12(30): 7076-7084.

DOI：10.1021/acs.jpclett.1c01776

• PERFORMANCE
• COMPOSITE
• V2O5
• XPS

Because they are safer and less costly than state-of-the-art Li-ion batteries, aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) have been attracting more attention in stationary energy storage and industrial energy storage. However, the electrochemical reaction of H+ in all of the cathode materials of AZIBs has been puzzling until now. Herein, highly oriented VO2 monocrystals grown on a Ti current collector (VO2-Ti) were rationally designed as the research model, and such a well-aligned VO2 cathode also displayed excellent zinc-ion storage capability (e.g., a reversible capacity of 148.4 mAh/g at a current density of 2 A/g). To visualize the H+ reaction process, we used time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectrometry. With the benefit of such a binder-free and conductor-free electrode design, a clear and intuitive reaction of H+ in a VO2 cathode is obtained, which is quite significant for unraveling the accurate reaction mechanism of VO2 in AZIBs.