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Hauptverfasser: Kathemi, Ibrahim Al, Arumughan, Vishnu, Zbiri, Mohamed, Kröger, Marcel, Smal, Ira, Kontturi, Eero, Bouchal, Roza
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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Online-Zugang:https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.19449
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author Kathemi, Ibrahim Al
Arumughan, Vishnu
Zbiri, Mohamed
Kröger, Marcel
Smal, Ira
Kontturi, Eero
Bouchal, Roza
author_facet Kathemi, Ibrahim Al
Arumughan, Vishnu
Zbiri, Mohamed
Kröger, Marcel
Smal, Ira
Kontturi, Eero
Bouchal, Roza
contents Aqueous zinc (Zn) batteries (AZBs) face significant challenges due to the limited compatibility of Zn anodes with conventional separators, leading to dendrite growth, hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), and poor cycling stability. While separator design is crucial for optimizing battery performance, its potential remains underexplored. The commonly used glass fiber (GF) filters were not originally designed as battery separators. To address their limitations, nanochitin derived from waste shrimp shells was used to fabricate separators with varying concentrations of amine and carboxylic functional groups. This study investigates how the type and concentration of these groups influence the separator's properties and performance. In a mild acidic electrolyte that protonates the amine groups, the results showed that the density of both ammonium and carboxylic groups in the separators significantly affected water structure and ionic conductivity. Quasi-Elastic Neutron Scattering (QENS) revealed that low-functionalized chitin, particularly with only ammonium groups, promotes strongly bound water with restricted mobility, thereby enhancing Zn plating and stripping kinetics. These separators exhibit exceptional Zn stability over 2000 hours at low current densities (0.5 mA/cm2), maintaining low overpotentials and stable polarization. Additionally, the full cell consisting of Zn||NaV3O8.1.5H2O showed a cycle life of over 2000 cycles at 2 A/g, demonstrating the compatibility of the nanochitin-based separators with low concentrations of functional surface groups. These results demonstrate the importance of a simple separator design for improving the overall performance of AZBs.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_19449
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Tuning Separator Chemistry: Improving Zn Anode Compatibility via Functionalized Chitin Nanofibers
Kathemi, Ibrahim Al
Arumughan, Vishnu
Zbiri, Mohamed
Kröger, Marcel
Smal, Ira
Kontturi, Eero
Bouchal, Roza
Materials Science
Aqueous zinc (Zn) batteries (AZBs) face significant challenges due to the limited compatibility of Zn anodes with conventional separators, leading to dendrite growth, hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), and poor cycling stability. While separator design is crucial for optimizing battery performance, its potential remains underexplored. The commonly used glass fiber (GF) filters were not originally designed as battery separators. To address their limitations, nanochitin derived from waste shrimp shells was used to fabricate separators with varying concentrations of amine and carboxylic functional groups. This study investigates how the type and concentration of these groups influence the separator's properties and performance. In a mild acidic electrolyte that protonates the amine groups, the results showed that the density of both ammonium and carboxylic groups in the separators significantly affected water structure and ionic conductivity. Quasi-Elastic Neutron Scattering (QENS) revealed that low-functionalized chitin, particularly with only ammonium groups, promotes strongly bound water with restricted mobility, thereby enhancing Zn plating and stripping kinetics. These separators exhibit exceptional Zn stability over 2000 hours at low current densities (0.5 mA/cm2), maintaining low overpotentials and stable polarization. Additionally, the full cell consisting of Zn||NaV3O8.1.5H2O showed a cycle life of over 2000 cycles at 2 A/g, demonstrating the compatibility of the nanochitin-based separators with low concentrations of functional surface groups. These results demonstrate the importance of a simple separator design for improving the overall performance of AZBs.
title Tuning Separator Chemistry: Improving Zn Anode Compatibility via Functionalized Chitin Nanofibers
topic Materials Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.19449