The superior cycling performance of the hydrothermal synthesized carbon-coated ZnO as anode material for zinc–nickel secondary cells

•Carbon-coated ZnO is synthesized by the hydrothermal method as anode material for Zn–Ni secondary cells for the first time.•The rate capability of carbon-coated ZnO is investigated for the first time.•Carbon-coated ZnO possesses the superior electrochemical cycle stability and high discharge capability.•Carbon-coated ZnO with 6.1% carbon content shows the best electrochemical properties.

Carbon-coated ZnO is synthesized by the hydrothermal method. The X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) tests indicate that carbon is uniformly coated on the surface of the ZnO particle. And the crystal form of ZnO isn't changed. The effects of carbon layer on the electrochemical performances of ZnO have also been investigated by the charge/discharge cycling test, cyclic voltammetry (CV), Tafel polarization curves and electrochemical impedance spectroscope (EIS) tests. The CV curves at different scan rates exhibit that carbon-coated ZnO has the superior reversibility at high scan rate. The charge/discharge cycling tests under different charge/discharge rates show, even if at high-rate, the cycling performance and specific discharge capacity of carbon-coated ZnO are also superior to that of bare ZnO. The Tafel polarization curves and electrochemical impedance spectroscope (EIS) verify that the carbon layer can improve the anti-corrosion and charge-transfer performances of ZnO. The different rate experiments indicate that, compared with the increase of the conductivity, the effect of carbon layer on improving the anti-corrosion performance of ZnO plays a more dominating role in improving the electrochemical performances of ZnO at low charge/discharge rate.