A Zinc-Bromine Battery with Deep Eutectic Electrolytes

A deep eutectic solvent (DES) is an ionic liquid-analog electrolyte, newly emerging due to its low cost, easy preparation, and tunable properties. Herein, a zinc-bromine battery (ZBB) with a Zn-halide-based DES electrolyte prepared by mixing ZnBr₂ , ZnCl₂ , and a bromine-capturing agent is reported. The water-free DES electrolyte allows a closed-cell configuration for the ZBB owing to the prevention of Br₂ evaporation and H₂ evolution. It is found that the Cl^- anion changes the structure of the zinc-halide complex anions and demonstrated that it improves the ion mobility and electrode reaction kinetics. The DES electrolyte with the optimized ZnCl₂ composition shows much higher rate capability and a cycle life 90 times longer than that of a ZnCl₂ -free DES electrolyte. A pouch-type flexible ZBB battery based on the DES electrolyte exhibits swelling-free operation for more than 120 cycles and stable operation under a folding test, suggesting its potential in consumer applications such as wearable electronics.