An Ultrafast Air Self-Charging Zinc Battery.

Air self-charging power systems possess the capability of energy harvesting, conversion and storage simultaneously. However, in general, their self-charging rate is slow and the batteries cannot be oxidized to the fully charged state due to the weak oxidizability of O 2 . Herein, we designed an ultrafast air self-charging aqueous zinc battery by constructing a PANI@Pt/C composite cathode. The introduction of Pt/C catalyst endows the redox reaction between PANI and O 2 with fast reaction kinetics and extended redox potential difference. Therefore, the self-charging rate of the Zn/PANI@Pt/C batteries is effectively accelerated and they can be self-charged to fully charged state. Furthermore, the PANI can be recharged by O 2 simultaneously during discharging process to compensate the consumed electrical energy, achieving prolonged energy supply. In addition, the PANI@Pt/C cathodes can be directly used as the cathodes of flexible self-charging zinc batteries due to their excellent mechanical properties. As a proof of concept, flexible soft-packaged Zn/PANI@Pt/C batteries were fabricated and displayed stable electrochemical performance and self-rechargeability even at different bending states. This work provides a route to design ultrafast chemical self-charging energy storage devices and broadens the horizons of flexible energy storage devices. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.