B-DECENT: Breakthrough Anode-less Rechargeable Aqueous Zinc-ion Batteries

在碳中性和能源需求不断增长的时代，清洁能源技术非常重要。考虑到太阳能和风能发电的不确定性和间歇性，需要最先进的电化学储能(EES)技术来促进按需供电。然而，目前的EES设备严重依赖锂离子电池，锂离子电池具有固有的性能、安全性、可用性和成本限制。可充电锌离子电池(RAZIB)被证明是下一代EES设备的颠覆性技术，因为它们承诺的成本低得多，原材料供应充足，可以以更容易的方式制造，可以避免爆炸事故。然而，锌电极金属利用率高、副反应和可逆性差、正极材料性能不理想等问题严重影响了RAZIBs的能量/功率密度和寿命。更重要的是，对电荷存储机制的了解不足是进一步设计的主要障碍。因此，可扩展的RAZIB还没有开发出来。为了解决这些问题，B-Decad将进行基础和实践研究，目标如下：1.阳极制造：了解锌的剥离/电镀行为，以便制造无锌金属的阳极。原位固体电解质界面(SEI)的形成：构建自愈性SEI，并评价其对无锌阳极的影响，特别是在高放电深度下。转换型阴极设计：开发和合成经济可行的转换型阴极，并对其充放电性能进行评价。正极机理研究：了解正极材料的工艺-结构-性能-性能关系。器件配置：改进制造工艺以实现无阳极、高负载阴极RAZIB；基于上述新设计制造和评估概念验证电池，以验证制造策略。

In the era of carbon neutrality and growing energy demands, clean energy technologies are immensely important. Considering the uncertainty and intermittency of solar and wind power, state-of-the-art electrochemical energy storage (EES) technologies are required to facilitate supply on demand. However, current EES devices rely heavily on Li-ion batteries, which have inherent performance, safety, availability, and cost limitations.Rechargeable aqueous Zn-ion batteries (RAZIBs) have remarkable proven potential as disruptive technology for next-generation EES devices as they promise much lower costs, abundant supply of raw materials, can be fabricated in a much more facile manner and explosive accidents can be avoided. However, challenges such as high metal usage, side reactions and poor reversibility of the Zn anode and unsatisfactory performance of cathode materials severely affect the energy/power density and lifespan of RAZIBs. More so, the poor understanding of charge storage mechanisms is a major hindrance to further design. Therefore, scalable RAZIBs are not yet developed.To solve these issues, B-DECENT will undertake fundamental and practical research with the following objectives: 1. Anode fabrication: Understand Zn stripping/plating behaviour to enable fabrication of Zn metal-less anodes.2. In-situ solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) formation: Construct self-healing SEIs, and evaluate their influence on Zn-less anodes,especially under high depth of discharge.3. Conversion-type cathode design: Develop and synthesise economically viable conversion-type cathodes, and evaluate their chargestorage performance.4. Cathode mechanism study: Understand process-structure-property-performance relations of cathode materials.5. Device configuration: Parametrise the manufacturing processes to achieve anode-less, high-loading-cathode RAZIBs; fabricate andevaluate proof-of-concept batteries based on above new designs to validate manufacturing strategies.