The contrasting impacts of polyethylene glycol on electrochemical behaviors of Fe and Zn metal anodes in aqueous batteries

Sungjin Yang; Cheng Chen; Xingyi Lyu; Soenke Seifert; Hunter Maclennan; Min Soo Jung; Emmanuel Nyela Musa; Yiming Sui; Alexis M. Scida; Riitvek Baddireddi; Maxine A. McNerney; Kyriakos C. Stylianou; Tao Li; Chong Fang; Xiulei Ji

doi:10.1039/D5CC01196E

The contrasting impacts of polyethylene glycol on electrochemical behaviors of Fe and Zn metal anodes in aqueous batteries†

Sungjin Yang,‡^a Cheng Chen,

‡^a Xingyi Lyu,

^b Soenke Seifert,^c Hunter Maclennan,^a Min Soo Jung,

^a Emmanuel Nyela Musa,^a Yiming Sui,^a Alexis M. Scida,^a Riitvek Baddireddi,^a Maxine A. McNerney,^a Kyriakos C. Stylianou,

^a Tao Li,

*^bc Chong Fang

*^a and Xiulei Ji

*^a

Author affiliations

* Corresponding authors

^a Department of Chemistry, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331-4003, USA
E-mail: David.Ji@oregonstate.edu, Chong.Fang@oregonstate.edu

^b Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois 60115, USA
E-mail: tli4@niu.edu

^c X-ray Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Illinois 60439, USA

Abstract

Polyethylene glycol (PEG) is considered an electrolyte additive to improve the performance of aqueous batteries. Here, we report that PEG enhances the Coulombic efficiency (CE) of an Fe metal anode (FeMA) in aqueous FeCl₂ electrolytes but surprisingly lowers the CE of Zn metal anode (ZMA) in concentrated ZnCl₂ electrolytes. We observed that the PEG addition raises the corrosion potential of FeMA but decreases that for ZMA. The femtosecond stimulated Raman spectroscopy (FSRS) and synchrotron small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) results reveal that PEG solvates Fe²⁺ rather than Zn²⁺ in the chloride-rich environments.

This article is part of the themed collection: Chemistry at the Forefront of the Sustainable Energy Transition

Chemical Communications

The contrasting impacts of polyethylene glycol on electrochemical behaviors of Fe and Zn metal anodes in aqueous batteries†

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The contrasting impacts of polyethylene glycol on electrochemical behaviors of Fe and Zn metal anodes in aqueous batteries

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