Abstract
The increasing demands on stretchable power supply for wearable electronics accelerate the development of stretchable batteries. Zn-based batteries are promising to be applied in wearable electronics due to their outstanding performance, intrinsic safety, low cost, and environmental friendliness. Recently, stretchable Zn-based batteries are designed to demonstrate the capability of delivering excellent electrochemical performance, meanwhile maintaining their mechanical stability. This review provides an overview of different strategies and designs to realize stretchability in different Zn-based battery components. The general strategies to realize stretchability are first introduced, followed by the specific designs on the cathode, anode, and electrolytes of Zn batteries. Moreover, current issues and possible strategies are also highlighted.
Introduction
With the rapid development of wearable smart devices, such as wearable displays, health-monitoring devices, and active radio-frequency identification tags, many researchers have carried out in-depth research on stretchable batteries for their use as compatible power supplies (; Rogers et al., 2019; ). As for the stretchable batteries, they are required to continuously output stable electrochemical performance, even under a large level of mechanical deformation (Song et al., 2014; ). The performance under stretchability should be reliable, where the as-fabricated device should be capable of enduring mechanical strain and meanwhile maintaining stable functionality. Such stretchability is challenging to achieve in conventionally layer-stacked battery configurations, where multiple component layers are intrinsically made into a grid (Zhang et al., 2015; Song et al., 2019). However, even a slight deformation can cause structural damages to active materials and consequential battery failures (Zhou et al., 2018; ). Thus, the first target to realize stretchable batteries is design stretchable frameworks to support the stable functionality of each battery component.
Until now, stretchable batteries based on many different chemistries have been developed, where safety is of paramount importance for human wearable electronics (; Song et al., 2019). Generally, mature battery chemistries have been explored, especially based on aprotic Li-ion batteries, while some corresponding severe safety issues of electrolytes, such as fire-catching and flammable property (; ), resulted in safety concerns especially subjected to different mechanical manipulations. As alternative and promising systems, significant developments in aqueous chemistries have been achieved for stretchable batteries, due to the intrinsic safety of aqueous electrolytes (Zhang H. et al., 2021; ). The representative Zn-ion batteries are the most promising systems due to the outstanding electrochemical performance of Zn-metal anodes with a lower reaction potential (−0.76 V versus standard hydrogen reaction) and high theoretical gravimetric capacity (820 mA h g−1). Battery reaction chemistries regarding cathode materials are widely studied, such as ion-insertion–type cathodes like MnO2 (; ; Zhang T. et al., 2020), V2O5 (; Xu et al., 2020), conversion-type cathodes (Ag2O) (; ), and air cathodes (O2) (Stock et al., 2019; Zhang Y. et al., 2021), where some detailed reviews have recently summarized these cathode/anode chemistries of Zn battery (; Zhang W. et al., 2020; ). On the contrary, the Zn-anode reactions can be classified into mild/neutral electrolytes and alkaline electrolytes, where reactions can be elaborated as Zn ⇌ Zn2+ + 2e− for the mild/neutral electrolytes and they can be elaborated as Zn + 4OH−⇌ Zn(OH)42− + 2e− for alkaline cases (Zhou et al., 2021). Considering all these Zn-based battery systems can deliver outstanding energy density and power density, combining the structural/configurational designs with the aqueous Zn–based chemistry is necessary to develop safe and stretchable batteries with stable performance.
In this review, we suddenly shift from the reaction chemistry of the battery and first focus on the general designing strategies of different components and integrated devices and then move to discussing the specific designing strategies to enable stretchability of Zn-based battery chemistries. To make battery components stretchable, there are two general designing strategies as material designs and structural designs. According to these two points, the representative examples are subsequently showcased from different components in the Zn-based battery, i.e., electrodes and electrolytes. Finally, we provide commentaries and perspectives on the outstanding challenges that must be overcome to make deformable batteries a reality.
General Material and Structural Designing Strategies for Stretchable Batteries
Material and structural designs are employed to impart robust mechanical durability and conformity of stretchable batteries to nonplanar surfaces (; ). Targets at realizing stretchable batteries would add mechanical difficulties, since the stretchability must be the zoomed-in area on a millimeter scale once subjected to different force forms and directions (; Yin et al., 2020). Generally, two methods are applied to enable stretchability as 1) material innovations and 2) structural designs. Specifically, material designs for stretchability focus on synthesizing novel stretchable active materials and/or combining active materials with stretchable hosting materials. On the contrary, structural designing strategies focus on combining specially designed stretchable shapes/structures to host rigid battery components.
Typical battery configurations are composed of four main components, anode, cathode, separator, electrolyte, and current collectors, as shown in Figure 1A. However, all of these components are generally rigid, which cannot preserve their structural integrity once subjected to forces exceeding their plastic deformation limits (Say et al., 2020). When targeted at endowing stretchability to these battery components, they are generally divided into three layers by integrating the cathode materials with their corresponding current collectors, the anode materials with their corresponding current collectors, and the electrolyte with the separator. Finally, stretchable batteries can be integrated and fabricated at the device level (). In other words, there would be three different layers of active materials to build up the stretchable battery devices (Figure 1B). Considering the electrode materials are generally inorganic materials without intrinsic deformability, stretchable polymer networks are generally introduced to endow stretchability, by building up percolating networks composed of conductive nanomaterials, electrochemical active materials, and stretchable supporting polymers, taking the polymeric cathode composite as an example in Figure 1C. Such strategy generally correlates the reengineering to obtain a composite electrode, where the polymeric ingredients are responsible for the mechanical stretchability and other materials are responsible for the conductive/electrochemical performance. A typical example is shown as embedding the silver nanowires into the stretchable polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate to obtain stretchability (Figure 1D) (Yan et al., 2014). Regarding the combination of the electrolyte and separator, stretchable hydrogel-based polymers are applied with intrinsic stretchability to act as the ion conductors, with more detailed discussions elaborated in the following.
FIGURE 1
Despite endowing stretchability to individual battery components, structural designs are also capable of enabling stretchability of rigid battery components by transforming them into stretchable configurations after adapting wavy (Figure 1E) (
Material Designs for Stretchable Zn-Based Batteries
In general, one representative strategy to obtain intrinsically stretchable battery components is to mix the active material with the precursor of the elastomer and then cure it. First, it is necessary to first obtain a stretchable current collector and the electrochemical active materials can be coated simultaneously with the conductive materials and/or subsequently electrodeposited in situ onto the current collector. For example, Yan et al. (2014) have designed stretchable rechargeable Zn–Ag batteries and then embedded conductive AgNWs into stretchable PDMS. They could simultaneously act as a stretchable composite current collector and cathode materials. In addition, the Zn anode can also be electrodeposited onto the stretchable AgNWs–based electrode to gain stretchability. The as-obtained Ag–Zn battery could endure stretchability up to 80% deformation and deliver a decent output voltage of ∼1.63 V at a current density of 1 mA cm−2 under 80% deformation with an energy density of 0.44 mW h cm−2.
Printing technologies can be applied by one-spot mixing of all the active materials as ink (
FIGURE 2

(A) Screen-printing steps of a Zn–Ag2O battery on a stretchable textile, exhibiting the cathode and anode reactions. Stretched states of the Zn anode (B) and the Ag2O cathode (C), and recovered states of the Zn anode (D) and the Ag2O cathode (E), respectively; scale bar: 50 µm (reproduced from
Structural Designs for Stretchable Zn-Based Batteries
There are two types of structural designs applied in stretchable Zn-based batteries, namely, fiber-shaped batteries and kirigami structure–modified batteries. Generally, these devices in planar configurations are not intrinsically stretchable by themselves, but stretchability was realized when the battery was built up into a serpentine fiber shape or kirigami shape.
As for the fiber-shaped batteries, one representative example in Zn-based batteries is as follows:
Another workable approach was applying kirigami strategies by cutting and folding planar batteries for strain-tolerant configurations, while the strain was redistributed relying on performing out-of-plane deformation at local positions and reduced by the blank area. Kirigami-derived configurations (e.g., cellular, pyramid, and basket patterns) have already been explored for stretchable Li-ion batteries and supercapacitors (
Stretchable Electrolytes for Stretchable Zn-Based Batteries
After discussing the material and structural design, the main strategy to realize stretchability of electrode materials is to combine them with elastic substrates. Regarding aqueous electrolytes as another significant component, polymer-based electrolytes were designed and applied, which not only act as ion conductors but also as separators (
For Zn-based batteries, there are generally two types of aqueous electrolytes, namely, mild electrolytes and alkaline electrolytes, which have different requirements on stretchable electrolytes. First, regarding the mild electrolytes, the highly cross-linked polyacrylamide (PAM) hydrogel was demonstrated with a high ionic conductivity of up to 17.3 × 10−3 S cm−1 and remarkable stretchability of up to 3,000% deformation (Figure 2J) (
On the other hand, regarding the alkaline electrolytes, the sodium polyacrylate (PANa) hydrogel was applied for nickel–cobalt–based cathodes as well as air cathodes. However, the stretchability of PANa polymer networks is not satisfying, showing even decrease in the alkaline environment. Improving strategies have been applied by introducing cellulose to build dual-network hydrogel that can be stretched over 1,100% (
Improving Directions for Future Stretchable Zn-Based Batteries
Through material and structural designs, stretchable zinc batteries can be realized with remarkable stretchability and good performance retention after cycled stretching. However, there are still some aspects, from our point of view, that need to be further strengthened from scientific and technical points.
The first is the low utilization of active materials. Generally, high stretchability and high electrochemical performance trade off with each other, because the system definitely needs the introduction of extra dispersing materials to enable stretchability and redundancy in volume to release strain in batteries. Thus, careful calculations are needed to decrease the gravimetric and volumetric capacity to improve corresponding energy densities (Wang D. et al., 2020). The second is the poor contacting and adhering forces at the interface of different layers. Considering batteries are always layered structures with layer-by-layer stacking of different materials based on weak physical bonding, they are easy to delaminate under external stresses. Thus, it is necessary to introduce chemical bonds at the interface and simultaneously attempt to reduce the shearing force at the interface of each specific spot. In addition, the configurational designs to dilute the external applied forces are another type of strategies to maintain the structural and performance stability (
Conclusion
The field of stretchable Zn-based batteries has witnessed rapid development in the past few years, showing huge potential for practical wearable applications. We summarize the state-of-the-art stretchable aqueous Zn-based batteries from aspects of material designs and structural designs. It should be emphasized that, even though batteries in rigid configurations have received more attentions than stretchable/flexible batteries, the developments of stretchable devices is beginning to catch up. Continuous efforts will be devoted to pursuing higher energy density, mechanical stability under stretched state, low-cost fabrication strategies. We hope that this review can attract more attentions on the rational designs on battery materials and structures for stretchable aqueous Zn batteries to be well-integrated into human’s daily life.
Statements
Author contributions
GJ conceived the idea. LH wrote the manuscript, and GJ revised it. All authors discussed the topics and contributed to the organization of this paper.
Funding
This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Grant Nos. 51903162 and U1903120), Science Foundation of Guangdong Second Provincial General hospital (YN 2018-001), Doctoral Workstation Foundation of Guangdong Second Provincial General Hospital (2019BSG 2024), and Guangzhou Science and Technology Plan Project (202102020646).
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Publisher’s note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
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Summary
Keywords
stretchable batteries, aqueous Zn-based batteries, wearable batteries, material design, battery structural design
Citation
Hang L and Jiang G (2021) Realizing Stretchable Aqueous Zn–Based Batteries by Material and Structural Designs. Front. Energy Res. 9:739150. doi: 10.3389/fenrg.2021.739150
Received
10 July 2021
Accepted
27 July 2021
Published
24 August 2021
Volume
9 - 2021
Edited by
Deping Li, Harbin Institute of Technology, China
Reviewed by
Li Xinliang, City University of Hong Kong, China
Guozhao Fang, Central South University, China
Funian Mo, Harbin Institute of Technology, China
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© 2021 Hang and Jiang.
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*Correspondence: Lifeng Hang, hanglf@ustc.edu.cn; Guihua Jiang, jianggh@gd2h.org.cn
This article was submitted to Electrochemical Energy Conversion and Storage, a section of the journal Frontiers in Energy Research
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All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.