The continuous depletion of fossil fuels and their connection to the rising atmospheric CO2 levels have aroused a severe global concern. Therefore, to mitigate these issues, the European Commission has set ambitious targets to make the EU climate-neutral by 2050. In line with this, the next generation of electrochemical energy storage (EES) devices with lower-cost, higher safety, sustainability, eco-friendliness, and performance is the need of an hour. In this direction, zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) are proving to be an effective EES technology that could meet the future demand for green and safe storage of electric power, which is vital for a low-carbon and fossil-fuel-independent civilization. However, to exploit ZIBs for commercial applications and use them as an alternative to costly and toxic Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) is very challenging. The commonly used cathodes for ZIBs such as manganese oxides, vanadium oxides, and Prussian blue. limit the rate capability of ZIBs because they severely suffer from decomposition and dissolution in the electrolyte. On the other hand, irregular stripping/plating in pristine Zn anode leads to the formation of Zn dendrites and short circuits, thereby reducing the cycle life of ZIBs severely. Therefore, the overall objectives of this work are to target the alternative anodes and cathodes for ZIBs to minimize the issues associated with the current state of the art based on highly porous and conductive metal-organic frameworks (CMOFs). The first objective is to find, optimize, synthesize, and characterize CMOFs that are suitable for depositing over pristine Zn anodes. The aim is to achieve uniform stripping/plating and minimize the Zn dendrites. The other objective is to select, optimize, synthesize, and characterize CMOF cathodes for ZIBs. The third objective is to synthesize and characterize the covalent interactions of CMOFs and graphene derivatives and use them as a cathode for ZIBs. The fourth objective is to use the optimized CMOF anode and cathode for the assembly of a full aqueous ZIB cell. In this objective, the anode of ZIB is also tested using synchrotron x-ray computed tomography (SXCT) to probe the dendrites and Zn dissolution in pristine and modified Zn anode during secondment in BAM, Berlin. Besides these four objectives, the other objective is planned to two-way transfer of knowledge between an experienced researcher (ER) and the host institute (HI), and also between ER and the secondment host. The final objective is to disseminate and communicate the project results from time to time. Hence, the Z-ION project is expected to offer indispensable knowledge for the advancement of low-cost, sustainable, and safer ZIB and will provide new avenues for EES technologies.
