Improvement of the electrochemical properties of Zn-ion aqueous batteries by modifying the electrodes with a conducting polymer

RFBR-NSFC Project №21-53-53012

(2021-2023)

A project, jointly led by Prof. V. V. Kondratiev and Prof. Dr. Lijun Fu of Nanjing Tech University, and co-led by Prof. Yuping Wu, is aimed at studying new electrode materials and their electrochemical properties in zinc-ion batteries. Activities within the project will include development of methods for synthesis of new composite organic-inorganic rechargeable materials for zinc-ion batteries: both metal oxide-based cathode materials and anode materials with the production of 3D zinc electrodes. Work will be done to study the structural-chemical and functional electrochemical properties of the obtained materials: both as individual electrodes and as part of battery test cells, in traditional and new concentrated electrolytes.

The novelty of the project lies within the synthesis of composite materials with improved chemical composition based on transition metal oxides (presumably manganese oxides and vanadium oxides) with incorporation of an electro-ion-conducting component - the conducting polymer poly-3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (PEDOT), including combinations with other ion-conducting polymers, as well as surface modification of active material grains by a shell of chemically stable conducting polymer, or creation of complex materials in the synthesis process. As one of the paths to achieve higher functional characteristics of zinc-ion batteries, the use of new compositions of concentrated electrolytes of the "water-in-salt" type is considered.

The idea for the project emerged during a visit to the Department of Electrochemistry in 2019 by Professor Yuping Wu, head of the Laboratory of New Materials for Energy at Nanjing Technical University, with the member of the same laboratory Dr. Lijun Fu, head of the joint project.

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