Co3 O4 Nanosheets as Active Material for Hybrid Zn Batteries

Peng Tan; Bin Chen; Haoran Xu; Weizi Cai; Wei He; Meilin Liu; Zongping Shao; Meng Ni

doi:10.1002/smll.201800225

Co₃ O₄ Nanosheets as Active Material for Hybrid Zn Batteries

Small. 2018 May;14(21):e1800225. doi: 10.1002/smll.201800225. Epub 2018 Apr 22.

Authors

Peng Tan¹, Bin Chen¹, Haoran Xu¹, Weizi Cai¹, Wei He¹, Meilin Liu², Zongping Shao^{3

4}, Meng Ni^{1

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Building and Real Estate, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong, 999077, China.
² School of Materials Science and Engineering, Center for Innovative Fuel Cell and Battery Technologies, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332-0245, USA.
³ Jiangsu National Synergetic Innovation Center for Advanced Material, College of Energy, State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, 210009, China.
⁴ Department of Chemical Engineering, Curtin University, Perth, WA, 6845, Australia.
⁵ Environmental Energy Research Group, Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development (RISUD), The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong, 999077, China.

PMID: 29682867
DOI: 10.1002/smll.201800225

Abstract

The rapid development of electric vehicles and modern personal electronic devices is severely hindered by the limited energy and power density of the existing power sources. Here a novel hybrid Zn battery is reported which is composed of a nanostructured transition metal oxide-based positive electrode (i.e., Co₃ O₄ nanosheets grown on carbon cloth) and a Zn foil negative electrode in an aqueous alkaline electrolyte. The hybrid battery configuration successfully combines the unique advantages of a Zn-Co₃ O₄ battery and a Zn-air battery, achieving a high voltage of 1.85 V in the Zn-Co₃ O₄ battery region and a high capacity of 792 mAh g_Zn^-1 . In addition, the battery shows high stability while maintaining high energy efficiency (higher than 70%) for over 200 cycles and high rate capabilities. Furthermore, the high flexibility of the carbon cloth substrate allows the construction of a flexible battery with a gel electrolyte, demonstrating not only good rechargeability and stability, but also reasonable mechanical deformation without noticeable degradation in performance. This work also provides an inspiring example for further explorations of high-performance hybrid and flexible battery systems.

Keywords: cobalt oxide; cycling stability; flexible devices; hybrid Zn batteries; working voltage.