Biomimetic honeycomb Zn anode enabled multi-field regulation toward highly stable flexible Zn-ion batteries

• Main Authors: Liu, Huaizhi, Li, Jinhao, Wei, Donghai, Liu, Xiuxue, Cai, Zheren, Zhang, Hang, Lv, Zhisheng, Chen, Lei, Li, Haicheng, Luo, Hongyu, Zhao, Yanli, Yu, Huihuang, Wang, Xiaohu, Chen, Fengjun, Zhang, Guanhua, Duan, Huigao
• Other Authors: School of Materials Science and Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Engineering::Materials; Biomimetic Honeycomb Electrodes; Multi-field Regulations
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/170646
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Flexible Zn-ion batteries (ZIBs) emerge as a promising entrant for flexible and safe energy systems in the post-Li era, while the instability of Zn anode including inferior flexibility, uncontrollable plating, and dendrite growth remains a challenge. Naturally inspired, a topology-optimized biomimetic honeycomb Zn (BH-Zn) anode through mechanical-electrochemical processing is demonstrated. Numerical simulations and experimental observations reveal the BH-Zn engenders smooth current–stress–thermal field distributions, concurrently realizing the multi-field regulation effect and boosted stability. After in situ alloying, the BH-Zn enables half-diminished voltage polarization, superior electrochemical stability of 2000 h cycling, and thermal stability even at 30 mA cm−2. Moreover, the assembled ZIBs manifest over 20 times enhanced capacity retention and are integrated as a self-powered wearable system for real-time health monitoring. This strategy can be extended to customizable metal anodes and promises to be applied in stable flexible batteries.