Highly Loaded and Binder-Free Molybdenum Trioxide Cathode Material Prepared Using Multi-Arc Ion Plating for Aqueous Zinc Ion Batteries

Abstract

Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (ZIBS) are becoming more popular as the use of energy storage devices grows, owing to advantages such as safety and an abundant zinc supply. In this study, molybdenum powder was loaded directly on carbon fiber cloth (CFC) via multi-arc ion plating to obtain Mo@CFC, which was then oxidatively heated in a muffle furnace for 20 min at 600 °C to produce high mass loading α-MoO3@CFC (α-MoO3 of 12–15 mg cm−2). The cells were assembled with α-MoO3@CFC as the cathode and showed an outstanding Zn2+ storage capacity of 200.8 mAh g−1 at 200 mA g−1 current density. The capacity retention rate was 92.4 % after 100 cycles, along with an excellent cycling performance of 109.8 mAh g−1 following 500 cycles at 1000 mA g−1 current density. Subsequently, it was shown that CFC-loaded α-MoO3 cathode material possessed significantly improved electrochemical performance when compared to a cell constructed from commercial MoO3 using conventional slurry-based electrode methods. This work presents a novel yet simple method for preparing highly loaded and binder-free cathodic materials for aqueous ZIBs. The results suggest that the highly loaded cathode material with a high charge density may be potentially employed for future flexible device assembly and applications.