Highly Stable Photo-Assisted Zinc-Ion Batteries via Regulated Photo-Induced Proton Transfer

Photo-assisted ion batteries utilize light to boost capacity but face cycling instability due to complex charge/ion transfer under illumination. This study identified photo-induced proton transfer (photo-induced PT) as a significant process in photo-(dis)charging of widely-used V2O5-based zinc-ion batteries, contributing to enhanced capacity under illumination but jeopardizing photo-stability. Photo-induced PT occurs at 100 ps after photo-excitation, inducing rapid proton extraction into V2O5 photoelectrode. This process creates a proton-deficient microenvironment on surface, leading to repetitive cathode dissolution and anode corrosion in each cycle. Enabling the intercalated protons from photo-induced PT to be reversibly employed in charge-discharge processes via the anode-alloying strategy achieves high photo-stability for the battery. Consequently, a similar to 54 % capacity enhancement was achieved in a V2O5-based zinc-ion battery under illumination, with similar to 90 % capacity retention after 4000 cycles. This extends the photo-stability record by 10 times. This study offers promising advancements in energy storage by addressing instability issues in photo-assisted ion batteries.