Interfacial Confinement Effect of Self-Adsorbed Monolayer Enables Highly Reversible Zn Metal Anodes.

The practical applications of aqueous Zn metal batteries are promising, yet still impeded by the corrosion reactions and dendrite growth on the Zn metal anode. Here, a self-adsorbed monolayer (SAM) is designed to stabilize the Zn metal anode. Theory and experiment results show that the interfacial confinement effect of the SAM, for one thing, greatly suppresses the corrosion reactions through the HO-poor inner Helmholtz plane because of the steric-hindrance effect, and for another, alleviates the Zn concentration gradient on the anode surface through the Zn enrichment behavior and eventually inhibits the dendrite growth.

Tailoring the Electrode Interface Microenvironment to Stabilize Zn Metal Anode.

Zn metal is the most attractive anode material for aqueous batteries, yet it encounters challenges from dendrites. Here, based on lanthanum trifluoromethanesulfonate (La(OTf))-based electrolyte, the idea of tailoring the electrode interface microenvironment (ion concentration, solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) and electric field) is proposed to stabilize the Zn metal anode. The theoretical and experimental results show that the reconstruction of the electrolyte microstructure by OTf and the capture of SO by La enhance the liquid-phase mass transfer, which alleviates the ion concentration gradient on the anode surface.