Charge storage mechanism of MOF-derived Mn2O3 as high performance cathode of aqueous zinc-ion batteries

Aqueous Zinc-ion batteries(ZIB) are attracting immense attention because of their merits of excellent safety and quite cheap properties compared with lithium-ion batteries(LIB).Manganese oxide is one of the most important cathode materials of ZIB.In this paper,α-Mn2O3 used as cathode of ZIB is synthesized via Metal-Organic Framework(MOF)-derived method,which delivers a high specific capacity of225 mAh g^(-1) at 0.05 A g^(-1) and 92.7 mAh g^(-1) after 1700 cycles at 2 A g^(-1).The charge storage mechanism of α-Mn2O3 cathode is found to greatly depend on the discharge current density.At lower current density discharging,the H+ and Zn2+ are successively intercalated into the α-Mn2O3 before and after the "turning point" of discharge voltage and their discharging products present obviously different morphologies changing from flower-like to large plate-like products.At a higher current density,the low-voltage plateau after the turning point disappears due to the decrease of amount of Zn2+ intercalation and the H+intercalation is dominated in α-Mn2 O3.This study provides significant understanding for future design and research of high-performance Mn-based cathodes of ZIB.