Utilizing solar energy to improve the oxygen evolution reaction kinetics in zinc–air battery

Abstract

Directly harvesting solar energy for battery charging represents an ultimate solution toward low-cost, green, efficient and sustainable electrochemical energy storage. Here, we design a sunlight promotion strategy into rechargeable zinc–air battery with significantly reduced charging potential below the theoretical cell voltage of zinc–air batteries. The sunlight-promoted zinc–air battery using BiVO ₄ or α-Fe ₂O ₃ air photoelectrode achieves a record-low charge potential of ~1.20 and ~1.43 V, respectively, under illumination, which is lowered by ~0.5–0.8 V compared to the typical charge voltage of ~2 V in conventional zinc–air battery. The band structure and photoelectrochemical stability of photoelectrodes are found to be key factors determining the charging performance of sunlight-promoted zinc–air batteries. The introduction of photoelectrode as an air electrode opens a facile way for developing integrated single-unit zinc–air batteries that can efficiently use solar energy to overcome the high charging overpotential of conventional zinc–air batteries.

Abstract

The authors here report a sunlight-promoted rechargeable zinc–air battery in which photoelectrode is used as the air electrode to substantially lower the charge potential under illumination. Notably, the battery can be initially charged with an extremely low voltage of ~1.20 V.