An Organic/Inorganic Electrode-Based Hydronium-Ion Battery ✉ Zhaowei Guo1, Jianhang Huang1, Xiaoli Dong 1, Yongyao Xia1, Lei Yan1, Zhuo Wang1 & Yonggang Wang 1
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ARTICLE https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14748-5 OPEN An organic/inorganic electrode-based hydronium-ion battery ✉ Zhaowei Guo1, Jianhang Huang1, Xiaoli Dong 1, Yongyao Xia1, Lei Yan1, Zhuo Wang1 & Yonggang Wang 1 Hydronium-ion batteries are regarded as one of the most promising energy technologies as next-generation power sources, benefiting from their cost effectivity and sustainability merits. Herein, we propose a hydronium-ion battery which is based on an organic pyrene- 1234567890():,; 4,5,9,10-tetraone anode and an inorganic MnO2@graphite felt cathode in an acid electrolyte. 2+ Its operation involves a quinone/hydroquinone redox reaction on anode and a MnO2/Mn + conversion reaction on cathode, in parallel with the transfer of H3O between two electrodes. The distinct operation mechanism affords this hydronium-ion battery an energy density up to 132.6 Wh kg−1 and a supercapacitor-comparable power density of 30.8 kW kg−1, along with a long-term cycling life over 5000 cycles. Furthermore, surprisingly, this hydronium-ion battery works well even with a frozen electrolyte under −40 °C, and superior rate performance and cycle stability remain at −70 °C. 1 Department of Chemistry and Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, Institute of New Energy, iChEM (Collaborative ✉ Innovation Centre of Chemistry for Energy Materials), Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China. email: [email protected] NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | (2020) 11:959 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14748-5 | www.nature.com/naturecommunications 1 ARTICLE NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14748-5 ithium ion batteries (LIBs) using organic electrolytes have 2 e– 2 e– been extensively used to power various portable electronics L Mn2+ and electric vehicles (EVs) because of their desirable elec- PTO Cathode 1–9 +2 H O+ +4 H O+ trochemical performance . Subsequently, the LIBs employing Anode 3 3 + –4 H3O –2 H O+ H O+ aqueous solution electrolytes (i.e., aqueous LIBs) were introduced 3 3 to relieve safety hazard associated with combustible and toxic – HQ 10 16 ε-MnO organic electrolytes , enabling the implementability of derived 2 high-safety applications, such as wearable electronic devices and 2 e– 2 e– large-scale energy storage. Nonetheless, the limited natural resource of lithium mineral still handicaps the further wide Fig. 1 Schematic illustration of working mechanism for the PTO// applications of LIBs, which is confirmed by the recently sharp MnO2@GF hydronium-ion battery. increase of Li salts price. As a result, the earth-abundant metal + + + + + − − ions, such as Na ,K ,Mg2 ,Zn2 and Al3 , are being con- ( 40 to 70 °C) in spite of the freeze of electrolyte at such sidered as the alternative charge carriers for building rechargeable temperature, which provides an approach for developing low- hydronium-ion batteries. Unfortunately, owing to the higher temperature batteries. ionic radius and/or charge number than Li+, these batteries generally show the inferior performance to LIBs17–30. Results Besides these metal ions, proton (H+) can also be used as a Electrochemical properties of half-cells. Prior to the fabrication promising charge carrier due to its smallest size and lightest of full battery, the electrochemical properties of anode (i.e., PTO- weight among all cation ions on the earth1,31–37. However, the electrode) and cathode (i.e., graphite felt-electrode) in the acid naked H+ can rarely be used as charge carrier because of the electrolyte containing Mn2+ were examined by the typical three- + formation of hydronium ions (H3O ), where the high dehydra- electrode tests, respectively. PTO sample was prepared according + 28 tion energy of H3O (11.66 eV) prevents the de-solvent process to our previous report . Commercialized graphite felt electrode + → + + + (H3O H H2O). That is to say, H3O can generally was directly used for the tests without further treatment. The as- be used as the charge carrier, rather than the naked H+. The prepared PTO particles display a well-ordered morphology in the + hydronium (H3O ) charge carrier shows the cost effectivity and shape of parallel oriented nanorod arrays with a diameter of sustainability advantages over these metal ions. Unfortunately, 200–500 nm and a length of 1–5 μm (Supplementary Fig. 1). The only several hydronium-ion batteries have been demonstrated sharp diffraction peaks of X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns in + fi recently, which might be attributable to that the size of H3O Supplementary Fig. 2 reveal a ne crystallinity of PTO, and its (that is larger than naked Li+ and close to naked Na+) limits high purity is verified by 1H-NMR (Supplementary Fig. 3) and choice of host materials. Very recently, Ji et al. demonstrated that FT-IR spectra (Supplementary Fig. 4). some host materials could reversibly store proton-based charge Figure 2a presents the cyclic voltammetry (CV) curves of PTO- + + carrier (i.e. H3O or NH4 ), which evokes the enthusiasm for electrode tested at different scan rates, where the electrode exhibits building hydronium-ion batteries35–39. However, the achieved two pairs of symmetric peaks, showing a highly reversible two-step performances are still inferior to previous aqueous LIB batteries, discharge/charge process. Furthermore, the peak currents increase showing the limited capacity (≤130 mAh g−1) or cycle stability almost linearly with the increase of scan rates (see Supple- (<1000 cycles). Therefore, it is necessary to explore new battery mentary Fig. 5 and corresponding discussions). The galvanostatic chemistry for H O+ storage. discharge-charge profiles with two pairs of well-defined sloping 3 + Herein, we propose a hydronium-ion battery, in which H3O is plateaus in Fig. 2b could be detected in accordance with above CV used as charge carrier to couple the reversible quinone/hydro- results. The PTO-electrode delivers a reversible specificcapacityof quinone redox reaction in a pyrene-4,5,9,10-tetraone (PTO)-based 208 mAh g−1 at a current density of 0.16 mA cm−2 (correspond- 2+ −2 anode and the reversible Mn /MnO2 conversion reaction in a ing to 0.2 C, defining 1 C as 0.8 mA cm ), and a decent capacity carbon-based cathode. Figure 1 illustrates the structure of the of 85 mAh g−1 is delivered even at an extreme high current density hydronium-ion battery, which involves a PTO-based anode and a of 480 mA cm−2 (600 C), proving an ultrafast reaction kinetics and graphite felt (GF) electrode (that serves as both substrate and good rate ability (Fig. 2b). It should be noted that the achieved current collector for cathode) in an acid electrolyte containing capacity (208 mAh g−1) at a low current density is only about 2+ + 2+ −1 Mn (i.e., 2 M MnSO4 2M H2SO4). On charge, the Mn in half of the theoretical capacity of approximately 400 mAh g electrolyte is oxidized into MnO2 precipitate on GF electrode with (calculated based on 4e4H reaction), showing that only ~50% + + + generation of H3O (Eq. 1), and simultaneously H3O in the carbonyl groups can be used for H3O storage. This phenomenon electrolyte is stored by PTO to form hydroquinone (HQ) through is further confirmed by the FT-IR characterization later. Owing to the reaction shown in Eq. 2. Electrons obviously transfer from the insolubility and structural stability during cycling, a high cathode to anode through external circuit. The discharge reverses capacity retention of 78% (corresponding to a specificcapacityof the charge process. The overall charge/discharge operation 118 mAh g−1) is still attainable over 1000 cycles at a moderate mechanism is as follows: current density of 2 mA cm−2 (2.5 C) (Fig. 2c). In addition, the þ þ À hybrid electrolyte (2 M MnSO + 2M H SO ) contains both Mn2 þ6H O $ MnO þ4H O þ2e ð1Þ 4 2 4 2 2 3 H O+ and Mn2+. Therefore, it is necessary to clarify which one 3 + + À þ (H O or Mn2 ) plays the role of charge carrier for reaction on PTO þ 2e þ2H O $ PTO À 2H þ 2H O ð2Þ 3 3 2 PTO-electrode. In order to reveal the intrinsic mechanism clearly, The hydronium-ion battery has been demonstrated to exhibit a a series of ex-situ characterizations have been carried out to high energy density and a supercapacitor-like power density, along investigate the electrode-active material (i.e., PTO) evolution at with a long-term cycle life over 5000 cycles. Furthermore, the various discharged/charged states. The acquired STEM EDS- hydronium-ion battery in a flexible configuration has also been elemental mapping images (Fig. 2d) and XPS spectra (Supple- built for flexible and wearable electronic devices, showing high mentary Fig. 6) of pristine, fully-reduced and fully-recovered safety and robust mechanical property. In addition, surprisingly, electrodes clearly indicate that Mn2+ is not the charge carrier, on we find that this hydronium-ion battery is able to exhibit pro- account of the absence of Mn element on PTO-electrode at the + mising electrochemical performance at the ultra-low temperature fully-reduced state. Accordingly, it can be assumed that H3O is 2 NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | (2020) 11:959 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14748-5 | www.nature.com/naturecommunications NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14748-5 ARTICLE a 2 b 0.6 1 0.16 mA cm–2 0.4 mA cm–2 0.4 0.8 mA cm–2 0 4 mA cm–2 80 mA cm–2 0.1–0.5 mV s 320 mA cm–2 –2 Current (mA) 480 mA cm –1 0.2 600 mA cm–2 –1 Potential (V vs. Ag/AgCI) (V vs. Potential 0.0 –2 0.00.2 0.4 0.6 050100 150 200 250 Potential (V vs.