Ultrahigh Energy and Power Density in Ni–Zn Aqueous Battery via Superoxide-Activated Three-Electron Transfer

Aqueous Ni–Zn microbatteries are safe, reliable and inexpensive but notoriously suffer from inadequate energy and power densities. Herein, we present a novel mechanism of superoxide-activated Ni substrate that realizes the redox reaction featuring three-electron transfers (Ni↔Ni³⁺). The superoxide activates the direct redox reaction between Ni substrate and KNiO₂ by lowering the reaction Gibbs free energy, supported by in-situ Raman and density functional theory simulations. The prepared chronopotentiostatic superoxidation-activated Ni (CPS-Ni) electrodes exhibit an ultrahigh capacity of 3.21 mAh cm⁻² at the current density of 5 mA cm⁻², nearly 8 times that of traditional one-electron processes electrodes. Even under the ultrahigh 200 mA cm⁻² current density, the CPS-Ni electrodes show 86.4% capacity retention with a Columbic efficiency of 99.2% after 10,000 cycles. The CPS-Ni||Zn microbattery achieves an exceptional energy density of 6.88 mWh cm⁻² and power density of 339.56 mW cm⁻². Device demonstration shows that the power source can continuously operate for more than 7 days in powering the sensing and computation intensive practical application of photoplethysmographic waveform monitoring. This work paves the way to the development of multi-electron transfer mechanisms for advanced aqueous Ni–Zn batteries with high capacity and long lifetime. © The Author(s) 2024.