Enhanced Polyaniline\nCathode in Capacity and Cyclability\nof Zinc Metal Batteries by Natural Glycyrrhizic Acid Self-Doping

Benefiting from the advantages of electronic conductivity\nand electrochemical\nproperties, polyaniline can serve as the cathode of aqueous zinc metal\nbatteries. However, shortcomings such as easy aggregation of polyaniline\nfrequently result in deterioration of electrochemical performance.\nA natural glycyrrhizic acid is used to salinize aniline monomers to\nform uniformly dispersed polyaniline cathode materials. The suitable\ncontent of glycyrrhizic acid can obviously enhance the capacity and\ncyclability of the polyaniline cathode. Based on this, polyaniline\ndoped with glycyrrhizic acid is deposited <i>in situ</i> on the melt-blown layer of face mask to prepare the cathode electrode.\nThe rate performance and cycle stability are relatively excellent,\nindicating the feasibility of applying the mask-based cathode material\nin the field of flexible, wearable zinc metal batteries.