Cathode Material for Aqueous Zinc-Ion Batteries and Manufacturing Method Thereof

Nickel-Doped Spinel Manganese Cathode Material for Aqueous Zinc-Ion Batteries with Cubic Phase Transition

This technology involves doping the ZnMn2O4 spinel structure—a cathode active material for aqueous zinc-ion batteries—with nickel. This process converts the crystal structure from tetragonal to cubic and reduces the Mn3+ content, thereby suppressing manganese dissolution and improving ion diffusion pathways.

Conventional ZnMn2O4 cathode materials suffer from manganese dissolution into the electrolyte due to the disproportionation reaction of Mn3+. Furthermore, electrostatic repulsion between zinc ions within the lattice leads to poor rate capability and reduced cycle life.

This technology utilizes a co-precipitation method to synthesize ZnMn2-xNixO4 (1.0≤x≤1.5), which replaces Mn3+ with Mn4+, mitigates Jahn-Teller distortion, and expands the lattice volume to facilitate smoother zinc-ion transport. Suitable for residential and industrial ESS using non-flammable aqueous electrolytes as well as safety-critical wearable power sources, it achieves a specific capacity of over 70mAh/g and rapid charge-discharge performance without capacity degradation caused by manganese dissolution.

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Key Features:

• Preparing a first mixed solution by adding and stirring a second solution, which is an acidic solution, into a first solution containing zinc, manganese, and nickel precursors.
• Filtering and drying the precipitate generated from the first mixed solution to obtain a cathode material precursor.
• Heat-treating the product at 500–700°C for 10–14 hours to obtain a cathode material with a composition of ZnMn2-xNixO4 (1.0≤x≤1.5).
• An aqueous zinc-ion battery in which an aqueous electrolyte is disposed between an anode containing the nickel-doped cathode material and a cathode.

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