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Vol. 17 (2025)

Ultrahigh Energy and Power Density in Ni–Zn Aqueous Battery via Superoxide-Activated Three-Electron Transfer

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-024-01586-z
Yixue Duan
School of Mechanical Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Intelligent Construction and Healthy Operation and Maintenance of Deep Underground Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, People’s Republic of China
Bolong Li
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong 999077, People’s Republic of China
Kai Yang
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong 999077, People’s Republic of China
Zheng Gong
Hong Kong Centre for Cerebro-Cardiovascular Health Engineering, Hong Kong Science Park, Hong Kong 999077, People’s Republic of China
Xuqiao Peng
School of Mechanical Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, People’s Republic of China
Liang He
School of Mechanical Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Intelligent Construction and Healthy Operation and Maintenance of Deep Underground Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, People’s Republic of China
Derek Ho
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong 999077, People’s Republic of China

Corresponding Author: Derek Ho

derekho@cityu.edu.hk

Nano-Micro Letters, Vol. 17 (2025), Article Number: 79

Abstract

Aqueous Ni–Zn microbatteries are safe, reliable and inexpensive but notoriously suffer from inadequate energy and power densities. Herein, we present a novel mechanism of superoxide-activated Ni substrate that realizes the redox reaction featuring three-electron transfers (Ni ↔ Ni3+). The superoxide activates the direct redox reaction between Ni substrate and KNiO2 by lowering the reaction Gibbs free energy, supported by in-situ Raman and density functional theory simulations. The prepared chronopotentiostatic superoxidation-activated Ni (CPS-Ni) electrodes exhibit an ultrahigh capacity of 3.21 mAh cm−2 at the current density of 5 mA cm−2, nearly 8 times that of traditional one-electron processes electrodes. Even under the ultrahigh 200 mA cm−2 current density, the CPS-Ni electrodes show 86.4% capacity retention with a Columbic efficiency of 99.2% after 10,000 cycles. The CPS-Ni||Zn microbattery achieves an exceptional energy density of 6.88 mWh cm−2 and power density of 339.56 mW cm−2. Device demonstration shows that the power source can continuously operate for more than 7 days in powering the sensing and computation intensive practical application of photoplethysmographic waveform monitoring. This work paves the way to the development of multi-electron transfer mechanisms for advanced aqueous Ni–Zn batteries with high capacity and long lifetime.


Highlights:
1 Efficient activation of Ni electrode employs chronopotentiostatic superoxidation.
2 Novel superoxide activation mechanism realizes the redox reaction with three-electron transfer (Ni ↔ Ni3+).
3 As-prepared CPS-Ni||Zn batteries exhibit simultaneously ultrahigh energy and power densities.

Keywords

Superoxide Multiple electron transfer Ni aqueous battery AIoT power source Wearable health monitoring
Duan, Yixue, Bolong Li, Kai Yang, Zheng Gong, Xuqiao Peng, Liang He, and Derek Ho. 2024. “Ultrahigh Energy and Power Density in Ni–Zn Aqueous Battery via Superoxide-Activated Three-Electron Transfer”. Nano-Micro Letters 17 (November):79. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-024-01586-z.
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