@article{Qin2026, 
author = {Zhouyang Qin and Gaoxu Han and Yilin Yang and Wenjie Zhang and Ruitao Lv and Wanci Shen and Zheng-Hong Huang},
title = {Vanadium nitride/carbon fiber engineered with oxygen defects and vertically aligned nanosheets for high-rate flexible aqueous zinc-ion batteries},
year = {2026},
journal = {Energy Materials and Devices},
volume = {4},
number = {1},
pages = {9370086},
keywords = {aqueous zinc-ion batteries, oxygen defects, vertically aligned porous nanosheet, high-rate performance},
url = {https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.26599/EMD.2026.9370086},
doi = {10.26599/EMD.2026.9370086},
abstract = {Flexible aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) are promising candidates for wearable devices owing to their high safety and low cost. However, their progress is plagued by their sluggish ion-transport kinetics, which leads to inferior rate capability. Herein, a vanadium nitride/carbon fiber (VN/CF) cathode was structurally engineered to incorporate oxygen defects and a vertically aligned, porous, nanosheet architecture to overcome these issues. This structure was realized via the initial growth of vertically aligned V2O5 nanosheet templates on gas-spun carbon fibers, followed by high-temperature NH3 treatment. The oxygen defects accelerate the kinetics of bulk diffusion within VN, while the vertically aligned VN nanosheet array possesses lower charge-transfer resistance, enhancing the kinetics of surface diffusion. These features synergistically improve the overall Zn2+ transport, affording high-rate performance. Consequently, the free-standing VN/CF cathode exhibits exceptional rate performance, delivering a capacity of 263.4 mAh g−1 even at a high current density of 10 A g−1. When assembled into flexible AZIBs, the device exhibits a high-rate capability of 249.7 mAh g−1 at 10 A g−1 and stable performance even under various bending deformations, demonstrating significant potential for next-generation wearable devices.}
}