An in situ recovery method to prepare carbon-coated Zn–Al–hydrotalcite as the anode material for nickel–zinc secondary batteries

Carbon-coated Zn-Al-hydrotalcite (Zn-Al-LDH) is firstly synthesized by an in situ recovery method and applied as a novel anode material for Ni/Zn secondary batteries. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements are carried out to investigate the structure and morphology of the as-prepared carbon-coated Zn-Al-LDH and the pristine Zn-Al-LDH. Meanwhile, the structure of each step synthetic product during an in situ recovery process are investigated through XRD measurements. The electrochemical performance of as-prepared carbon-coated Zn-Al-LDH and pristine Zn-Al-LDH are investigated through cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and galvanostatic charge-discharge (GCD) measurements. Compared with pristine Zn-Al-LDH, the carboncoated Zn-Al-LDH shows better reversibility, lower charge-transfer resistance and more stable cycling performance.