Low cost carboxymethyl cellulose additive toward stable zinc anodes in aqueous zinc ion battery

Aqueous zinc ion batteries (AZIBs) have got increasingly worldwide attention in virtue of the excellent advantages of cheap price, safety and high specific capacity. Nevertheless, the formation of dendrites and the hydrogen evolution reaction on the Zn anode leads to low cycle life and restrict their commercial application. In this paper, an inexpensive, safe, eco-friendly and effective electrolyte additive, carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), which can guide a uniform Zn deposition during the plating and stripping process and further inhibit the growth of dendrite, has been proposed. The experimental results indicate that the Zn//Zn symmetric cells show remarkable cycling performance for >600 h at a current density of 5 mA cm−2 with 1 mAh cm−2 and 1000 h at a current density of 1 mA cm−2 with 1 mAh cm−2, respectively. In addition, the Zn//V2O5 full cells with addition of CMC can obtain a desirable specific capacity for 173 mAh g−1 and keep a high-capacity retention of 54.2 % (19.5 % for without CMC additive) after 1000 cycles at 2A g−1. A reasonable improved mechanism of electrochemical performance by addition of CMC electrolyte additive has been proposed. This work demonstrates that addition of CMC in electrolyte is a promising strategy for inhibiting Zn dendrite and corrosion in AZIBs.