A Poly(ethylene carbonate)-based all solid state zinc ion battery

Aqueous zinc-ion battery (AZIB) is expected to be an alternative energy storage device for lithium-ion batteries because of its advantages of high safety and low cost. However, a series of side reactions on cathodes and anodes caused by aqueous electrolytes still remain to be resolved. Using "solvent-free" solid polymer electrolyte (SPE) can fundamentally settle the above issues. Poly(ethylene carbonate) (PEC), possesses a higher amorphous phase and weaker binding of carbonate groups to Zn2+, is a promising polymer electrolytes. Here, a PEC-based solid electrolyte modified with succinonitrile (SN) is successfully developed, furthermore, in order to improve the interface contact between electrode and electrolyte, the polymer electrolyte is in-situ prepared directly between electrodes. The results indicate that, compared with traditional battery assembling processes, the in-situ method can significantly reduce the interface impedance, which is one tenth of ex-situ SPE. The optimal component's room temperature ionic conductivity is 5.183 × 10–5, the ion transport number is 0.61, and the zinc symmetric battery assembled with it has a stable and highly reversible dendrite-free plating/stripping curves at 0.1 mA cm–2. The all-solid-state in-situ battery assembled with MnO2 and Zn metal can cycle 100 rounds at 0.1 A g–1.