Work

Carbon nanofiber embedded with amorphous VO x as a functional framework for Zn anode modification

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Aqueous Zn metal batteries (AZMBs) show significant potential for flexible energy storage devices. However, the Zn anodes face persistent challenges in practical applications (including dendrite growth, corrosion, and hydrogen evolution), which compromise cycling stabilities and Coulombic efficiencies, thereby hindering commercialization of AZMBs. Herein, a self-supporting framework is synthesized by electrostatic spinning and controllable pyrolysis using gelatin and ammonium metavanadate as precursors. The framework consists of N-doped carbon fibers integrated with amorphous VOx (denoted as VOx@GC), which serves to modify the Zn anode. It is revealed that the VOx@GC host contains abundant metal and non-metal zincophilic sites, which not only facilitates Zn2+ desolvation and decreases diffusion resistance, but also provides plentiful nucleation sites. Consequently, the nucleation barrier of Zn2+ is substantially reduced, promoting dendrite-free Zn2+ deposition. In symmetric cells, the VOx@GC modified Zn anode (VOx@GC@Zn) realizes a long cycling life of 4000 hours and 1600 hours with low polarization potentials under low and high capacities conditions, respectively. The VOx@GC@Zn//NH4V4O10 full cell provides a high capacity of 219.6 mA h g−1 over 2000 cycles at 2 A g−1 (N/P = 4.2). Furthermore, the pouch cell maintains good performance over 300 cycles at 0.2 A g−1, with a capacity retention of 88.3%, highlighting strong potential for practical applications.

Source: Nano Research

DOI: 10.26599/nr.2025.94907588