Co-Regulating Solvation Structure and Hydrogen Bond Network via Bio-Inspired Additive for Highly Reversible Zinc Anode.

The feasibility of aqueous zinc-ion batteries for large-scale energy storage is hindered by the inherent challenges of Zn anode. Drawing inspiration from cellular mechanisms governing metal ion and nutrient transport, erythritol is introduced, a zincophilic additive, into the ZnSO electrolyte. This innovation stabilizes the Zn anode via chelation interactions between polysaccharides and Zn.

A Perspective of Bioinspired Interfaces Applied in Renewable Energy Storage and Conversion Devices.

The natural world renders a large number of opportunities to design intriguing structures and fascinating functions for innovations of advanced surfaces and interfaces. Currently, bioinspired interfaces have attracted much attention in practical applications of renewable energy storage and conversion devices including rechargeable batteries, fuel cells, dye-sensitized solar cells, and supercapacitors. By mimicking miscellaneous natural creatures, many novel bioinspired interfaces with various components, structures, morphology, and configurations are exerted on the devices' electrodes, electrolytes, additives, separators, and catalyst matrixes, resorting to their wonderful mechanical, optical, electrical, physical, chemical, and electrochemical features compared with the corresponding traditional modes.

Subnanocyclic Molecule of 15-Crown-5 Inhibiting Interfacial Water Decomposition and Stabilizing Zinc Anodes via Regulation of Zn Solvation Shell.

Aqueous zinc ion batteries exhibit a promising application prospect for next-generation energy storage devices. However, the decomposition of active HO molecules on the Zn anode induces drastic dendrite formation, thereby impairing the performance for entire devices. To solve this challenge, we introduce subnanocyclic molecules of 15-Crown-5 as an additive into ZnSO electrolyte to stabilize the Zn anode.

Electrolyte Modulation of Biological Chelation Additives toward a Dendrite-Free Zn Metal Anode.

Aqueous zinc-ion batteries are considered promising energy storage devices due to their superior electrochemical performance. Nevertheless, the uncontrolled dendrites and parasitic side reactions adversely affect the stability and durability of the Zn anode. To cope with these issues, inspired by the chelation behavior between metal ions and amino acids in the biological system, glutamic acid and aspartic acid are selected as electrolyte additives to stabilize the Zn anode.

Synergistic Modulation of Mass Transfer and Parasitic Reactions of Zn Metal Anode via Bioinspired Artificial Protection Layer.

Rechargeable aqueous zinc-ion batteries are regarded as promising energy storage devices due to their attractive economic benefits and extraordinary electrochemical performance. However, the sluggish Zn mass transfer behavior and water-induced parasitic reactions that occurred on the anode-electrode interface inevitably restrain their applications. Herein, inspired by the selective permeability and superior stability of plasma membrane, a thin UiO-66 metal-organic framework layer with smart aperture size is ex-situ decorated onto the Zn anode.

Ion-Electron Coupling Enables Ionic Thermoelectric Material with New Operation Mode and High Energy Density.

Ionic thermoelectrics (i-TE) possesses great potential in powering distributed electronics because it can generate thermopower up to tens of millivolts per Kelvin. However, as ions cannot enter external circuit, the utilization of i-TE is currently based on capacitive charge/discharge, which results in discontinuous working mode and low energy density. Here, we introduce an ion-electron thermoelectric synergistic (IETS) effect by utilizing an ion-electron conductor.

Electrolyte Regulation of Bio-Inspired Zincophilic Additive toward High-Performance Dendrite-Free Aqueous Zinc-Ion Batteries.

Aqueous zinc-ion batteries hold attractive potential for large-scale energy storage devices owing to their prominent electrochemical performance and high security. Nevertheless, the applications of aqueous electrolytes have generated various challenges, including uncontrolled dendrite growth and parasitic reactions, thereby deteriorating the Zn anode's stability. Herein, inspired by the superior affinity between Zn and amino acid chains in the zinc finger protein, a cost-effective and green glycine additive is incorporated into aqueous electrolytes to stabilize the Zn anode.

Modulating Surface Electron Density of Heterointerface with Bio-Inspired Light-Trapping Nano-Structure to Boost Kinetics of Overall Water Splitting.

Herein, inspired by natural sunflower heads' properties increasing the temperature of dish-shaped flowers by tracking the sun, a novel hybrid heterostructure (MoS /Ni S @CA, CA means carbon nanowire arrays) with the sunflower-like structure to boost the kinetics of water splitting is proposed. Density functional theory (DFT) reveals that it can modulate the active electronic states of NiMo atoms around the Fermi-level through the charge transfer between the metallic atoms of Ni S and MoMo bonds of MoS to boost overall water splitting. Most importantly, the finite difference time domain (FDTD) could find that its unique bio-inspired micro-nano light-trapping structure has high solar photothermal conversion efficiency.

Construction of Bio-inspired Film with Engineered Hydrophobicity to Boost Interfacial Reaction Kinetics of Aqueous Zinc-Ion Batteries.

Aqueous zinc-ion batteries typically suffer from sluggish interfacial reaction kinetics and drastic cathode dissolution owing to the desolvation process of hydrated Zn and continual adsorption/desorption behavior of water molecules, respectively. To address these obstacles, a bio-inspired approach, which exploits the moderate metabolic energy of cell systems and the amphiphilic nature of plasma membranes, is employed to construct a bio-inspired hydrophobic conductive poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) film decorating α-MnO cathode. Like plasma membranes, the bio-inspired film can "selectively" boost Zn migration with a lower energy barrier and maintain the integrity of the entire cathode.

Recent Advances on Boosting the Cell Voltage of Aqueous Supercapacitors.

Due to its ultra-fast charge/discharge rate, long cyclic life span, and environmental benignity, aqueous supercapacitor (SC) is considered as a proper next-generation energy storage device. Unfortunately, limited by undesirable water electrolysis and unreasonable electrode potential range, aqueous SC normally generates a narrow cell voltage, resulting in a low energy density. To address such challenge, enormous efforts have been made to construct high-voltage aqueous SCs.