Hydrated Metal Vanadate Heterostructures as Cathode Materials for Stable Aqueous Zinc-Ion Batteries

Aqueous zinc ion batteries (AZIBs) have received a lot of attention in electrochemical energy storage systems for their low cost, environmental compatibility, and good safety. However, cathode materials still face poor material stability and conductivity, which cause poor reversibility and poor rate performance in AZIBs. Herein, a heterogeneous structure combined with cation pre-intercalation strategies was used to prepare a novel CaV6O16<middle dot>3H2O@Ni0.24V2O5<middle dot>nH2O material (CaNiVO) for high-performance Zn storage. Excellent energy storage performance was achieved via the wide interlayer conductive network originating from the interlayer-embedded metal ions and heterointerfaces of the two-phase CaNiVO. Furthermore, this unique structure further showed excellent structural stability and led to fast electron/ion transport dynamics. Benefiting from the heterogeneous structure and cation pre-intercalation strategies, the CaNiVO electrodes showed an impressive specific capacity of 334.7 mAh g-1 at 0.1 A g-1 and a rate performance of 110.3 mAh g-1 at 2 A g-1. Therefore, this paper provides a feasible strategy for designing and optimizing cathode materials with superior Zn ion storage performance.