Rechargeable aqueous Zn/manganese dioxide (Zn/MnO₂) batteries are attractive energy storage technology owing to their merits of low cost, high safety, and environmental friendliness. However, the β-MnO₂ cathode is still plagued by the sluggish ion insertion kinetics due to the relatively narrow tunneled pathway. Furthermore, the energy storage mechanism is under debate as well. Here, β-MnO₂ cathode with enhanced ion insertion kinetics is introduced by the efficient oxygen defect engineering strategy. Density functional theory computations show that the β-MnO₂ host structure is more likely for H⁺ insertion rather than Zn²⁺, and the introduction of oxygen defects will facilitate the insertion of H⁺ into β-MnO₂. This theoretical conjecture is confirmed by the capacity of 302 mA h g⁻¹ and capacity retention of 94% after 300 cycles in the assembled aqueous Zn/β-MnO₂ cell. These results highlight the potentials of defect engineering as a strategy of improving the electrochemical performance of β-MnO₂ in aqueous rechargeable batteries.

可再充电的Zn /二氧化锰水溶液（Zn / MnO ₂）由于具有低成本，高安全性和环境友好的优点而成为有吸引力的储能技术。然而，由于相对较窄的隧穿路径，β- MnO ₂阴极仍然受到缓慢的离子插入动力学的困扰。此外，储能机制也正在辩论中。在此，通过有效的氧缺陷工程策略引入了具有增强的离子插入动力学的β- MnO ₂阴极。密度泛函理论计算表明，β- MnO ₂主体结构更可能用于H ⁺插入而不是Zn^{2 +}，氧缺陷的引入将促进H ⁺插入β- MnO _2中。该理论推测由302毫安汞的能力证实^-1和在组装的水溶液的Zn / 300次循环之后的94％的容量保持率β -MnO ₂细胞。这些结果突出了缺陷工程的潜力，作为改善水性可充电电池中β- MnO ₂电化学性能的策略。