3D channeled porous carbon hosts with cobalt nanoparticle-induced zincophilicity for stable zinc anodes

Abstract

Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) have seen substantial progress, motivated by the increasing emphasis on environmentally benign and intrinsically safe energy storage solutions. However, Zn dendrite formation remains a significant challenge, leading to rapid capacity decay, low Coulombic efficiency (CE), and internal short circuits. Herein, we present three-dimensional (3D) channeled-porous carbon particles decorated with Co nanoparticles (CPC-Co) as a highly reversible Zn host to address these challenges. The incorporation of zincophilic Co nanoparticles effectively reduces the nucleation overpotential, promoting uniform Zn deposition, while the 3D channeled-porous carbon framework accommodates volume changes during Zn plating/stripping. As a result, the CPC-Co electrode enables stable Zn plating/stripping for over 830 cycles at 2 mA cm−2, with an average CE of 99.1%. Even at higher current densities of 6 and 10 mA cm−2, the electrode maintains extended cycling stability for 635 and 100 cycles, respectively. Density functional theory calculations further suggest that the Co nanoparticles act as effective zincophilic sites for achieving consistent Zn nucleation. Consequently, a full cell incorporating the Zn@CPC-Co anode and V2O5 cathode exhibits excellent cycling stability over 6000 cycles at 1 A g−1.