Work

High-mass-loading NiCo-LDH hollow nanoflower for high-performance alkaline aqueous zinc batteries

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Nickel/cobalt-based materials are promising cathode owing to its high redox potential, high specific capacity, and long cycling performance. However, with the mass-loading of the electrode increasing, it greatly hinders the ion diffusion and charge transport, resulting in serious decrease of the electrode capacity. Herein, a hierarchical nickel-cobalt-based porous nanoflower structure (NiCo-Nanoflower) composed of numerous ultrathin nanosheets is synthesized, which significantly enhances the surface area and provides additional active sites. Besides, the abundant oxygen defects in NiCo-Nanoflower significantly enhance its electrical conductivity. Therefore, the NiCo-Nanoflower electrode exhibits a high reversible capacity of up to 210.4 mAh g −1 at 0.5 A g −1 and excellent rate retention of 180.4 mAh g −1 at 8 A g −1 (104 mA cm −2 ) even under high areal mass loading of 13 mg·cm −2 . Upon assembly in a NiCo//Zn battery system, the configuration demonstrates exceptional electrochemical stability, maintaining 74.3% capacity retention after 5000 cycles. This work demonstrates that NiCo-Nanoflower, equipped with three-dimensional microstructure and oxygen-enriched defects, holds significant potential for application in high-mass-loading cathodes for alkaline aqueous zinc batteries.

Source: ChemPhysMater

DOI: 10.1016/j.chphma.2025.06.001