An Ionic Liquid Supramolecular Gel Electrolyte with Unique Wide Operating Temperature Range Properties for Zinc-Ion...

Zinc-ion batteries are promising candidates for large-scale energy storage. The side reactions of the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and zinc dendrite growth are major challenges for developing high-performance zinc-ion batteries. In this paper, a supramolecular gel electrolyte (BLO-ILZE) was self-assembled in an ionic liquid (EMIMBF₄) with zinc tetrafluoroborate (Zn(BF₄)₂) on the separator in situ to obtain a gel electrolyte used in zinc-ion batteries. BLO-ILZE is demonstrated to significantly enhance conductivity over a broad temperature range between -70 and 100 °C. Interestingly, through testing and fitting, it is found that the supramolecular gel electrolyte satisfies the liquid state law over a wide temperature range, and even achieves high conductivity (2.12 mS cm^-1) at -40 °C. It is equivalent to the conductivity of aqueous zinc-ion batteries (ZnSO₄/H₂O) at -10 °C, which is 2.33 mS cm^-1. Moreover, the supramolecular gel electrolyte can effectively inhibit the HER, thus exhibiting a longer lifetime in Zn/Zn cells for 3470 h at 1 mA cm^-2 compared to the aqueous zinc-ion batteries with the Zn(BF₄)₂ aqueous electrolyte (400 h at 1 mA cm^-2). The assembled V₂O₅/BLO-ILZE/Zn full cells also showed cycling performance, with 5000 cycles at 0.5 mA g^-1 at room temperature, a capacity of 98%, and a coulombic efficiency of about 100%.