Andres E Araujo-Correa, Yamna D Acosta-Tejada, Lexis N Feliz-Hernandez, Wentao Hou, Laura Catalina Cruz, Lisandro Cunci, Karilys González-Nieves, Xianyong Wu, Dalice M Piñero Cruz
Aqueous zinc batteries have become an attractive alternative for energy storage due to their low cost, safety, and low toxicity compared to traditional lithium-ion batteries, which suffer from safety concerns. However, they are limited by the lack of high-performance, stable cathodes. Herein, we report the electrochemical study of iron phthalocyanine-reduced graphene oxide hybrid materials as cathodes for aqueous zinc batteries. The prepared materials had a voltage of 1.2 V and displayed high cyclic stability with a capacity retention of over 70% after 2500 cycles and a high-rate performance up to 2000 mA/g, which represents an improvement compared to bare iron phthalocyanine, highlighting the positive effect of the incorporation of reduced graphene oxide to prepare a hybrid. Furthermore, incorporating fluorine into the phthalocyanine ring led to improved battery performance, which highlights the positive effect of tuning the phthalocyanine ring for the design of high-performance phthalocyanine-based cathodes for aqueous zinc-ion batteries.