Adv. funct. Mater.: Research Progress of Sun Yat sen University in the field of high energy water nickel zinc batteries

With the increasing energy crisis and global warming, electrochemical energy storage devices play an increasingly important role Compared with the traditional lithium-ion battery, the water system rechargeable and discharge battery has been widely concerned by researchers because of its high safety, low cost, high ionic conductivity and good rate performance Among many water based energy storage devices, Ni Zn battery is regarded as a possible alternative to lithium-ion battery because of its low cost, safe use, environmental friendliness, high voltage and large capacity However, the low capacity of Ni based positive electrode in most Ni Zn batteries has restricted the further development of Ni Zn batteries Therefore, it is of great significance to design and develop a high capacity water Ni Zn battery To solve this problem, Wang Rui, a 2015 undergraduate student from the school of chemistry, Sun Yat sen University, and others, under the guidance of Associate Professor Lu Xihong and Professor Jiang Jiuxing, designed a kind of water system Ni Zn battery with high energy density and excellent cycling performance based on the nickel oxide core-shell structure positive material Compared with the blank nickel foam cathode, the Ni@NiO cathode material with core-shell structure has higher reactivity, larger specific surface area, and more conducive to electron transport and ion diffusion Therefore, the energy density of the water-based Ni Zn battery based on Ni @ NiO anode is as high as 15.1 MWh cm − 3, and the power density is as high as 1392 mwcm-3, which is higher than the water-based battery reported in many studies Moreover, the Ni @ NiO core-shell electrode is easy to be prepared in large area and has excellent cycle stability In addition, the assembled Ni Zn battery has a good mechanical strength, and the compressive stress basically does not affect its performance The research results were published in the internationally famous academic journals adv function Mater (Rui Wang, Yi Han, Zifan Wang, Jiang Jiang *, yexiangtong and Xihong Lu *, adv function Mater., 2018, 28, 1802157), entitled "nickel @ nickel oxide core – shell electricity with significant boosted reactivity for ultrahigh energy and stable aqueousni – Zn Battery ”。