Negatively charged nanoporous membrane for a dendrite-free alkaline zinc-based flow battery with long cycle life

ZZ Yuan and XQ Liu and WB Xu and YQ Duan and HM Zhang and XF Li, NATURE COMMUNICATIONS, 9, 3731 (2018).

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-06209-x

Alkaline zinc-based flow batteries are regarded to be among the best choices for electric energy storage. Nevertheless, application is challenged by the issue of zinc dendrite/accumulation. Here, we report a negatively charged nanoporous membrane for a dendrite-free alkaline zinc-based flow battery with long cycle life. Free of zinc dendrite/accumulation, stable performance is afforded for similar to 240 cycles at current densities ranging from 80 to 160 mA cm(-2) using the negatively charged nanoporous membrane. Furthermore, 8 h and 7 h plating/stripping processes at 40 mA cm(-2) yield an average energy efficiency of 91.92% and an areal discharge capacity above 130 mAh cm(-2). A peak power density of 1056 mW cm(-2) is achieved at 1040 mA cm(-2). This study may provide an effective way to address the issue of zinc dendrite/accumulation for zinc-based batteries and accelerate the advancement of these batteries.

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