Bimetallic Design Based on the Nucleation Rate of Prussian Blue Analogues for Enhanced Aqueous Zinc Ion Batteries with Glycerol–Water Hybrid Electrolytes

Abstract

A magical heterostructures of M-PBAs (M = Co, Cu, and Zn) encapsulated by V-PBA have been successfully obtained by a facile one-pot coprecipitation method based on the difference in the binding energies of between these metal ions and ligands, and the nucleation rates of different M-PBAs. Hence, due to the multiple redox pairs, open frameworks, ordered channels, and synergistic effect of two components, the obtained VM-PBAs have been tested as cathodes in aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs). To further inhibiting the hydrolysis of vanadium ions and the collapse of PBAs structures, a series of glycerol-water hybrid electrolyte with different content of glycerol were designed. Benefiting from the multiple hydroxyl groups, appropriate viscosity and accurate proportion of glycerol, the as-assembled AZIBs with VMn-PBAs cathode can exhibit excellent cycling performance (∼73% capacity retain of stable capacity) after 1000 cycles. This work provides a sight of preparation of PBAs nanomaterials and a strategy of improve the cycling stability and rate capacity of PBAs-based cathodes in AZIBs.