Manipulating Interphase Chemistry for Aqueous Zn Stabilization: The Role of Supersaturation.

The limited cycling durability of Zn anode, attributed to the absence of a robust electrolyte-derived solid electrolyte interphase (SEI), remains the bottleneck for the practical deployment of aqueous zinc batteries. Herein, we highlight the role of local supersaturation in governing the fundamental crystallization chemistry of Zn4SO4(OH)6·xH2O (ZSH) and propose a subtle supersaturation-controlled morphology strategy to tailor the interphase chemistry of Zn anode. By judiciously creating local high-supersaturation environment with organic caprolactam to manipulate the precipitation manner of zinc sulfate hydroxide (ZSH), lattice-lattice matched heterogeneous nucleation of ZSH (001) and Zn (002) is realized in aqueous ZnSO4, producing a dense, pseudo-coincidence interface capable of functioning as decent SEI.

Pyrrolic-Nitrogen Chemistry in 1-(2-hydroxyethyl)imidazole Electrolyte Additives toward a 50,000-Cycle-Life Aqueous Zinc-Iodine Battery.

Rechargeable aqueous zinc iodine (Zn-I) batteries offer benefits such as low cost and high safety. Nevertheless, their commercial application is hindered by hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and polyiodide shuttle, which result in a short lifespan. In this study, 1-(2-hydroxyethyl)imidazole (HEI) organic molecules featuring pyrrole-N groups are introduced as dually-functional electrolyte additives to simultaneously stabilize Zn anode and confine polyiodide through ion-dipole interactions.

Molecular Bridging Induced Anti-Salting-Out Effect Enabling High Ionic Conductive ZnSO-Based Hydrogel for Quasi-Solid-State Zinc Ion Batteries.

Hydrogel electrolytes (HEs) hold great promise in tackling severe issues emerging in aqueous zinc-ion batteries, but the prevalent salting-out effect of kosmotropic salt causes low ionic conductivity and electrochemical instability. Herein, a subtle molecular bridging strategy is proposed to enhance the compatibility between PVA and ZnSO from the perspective of hydrogen-bonding microenvironment re-construction. By introducing urea containing both an H-bond acceptor and donor, the broken H-bonds between PVA and HO, initiated by the SO -driven HO polarization, could be re-united via intense intermolecular hydrogen bonds, thus leading to greatly increased carrying capacity of ZnSO.

Crowding Effect-Induced Zinc-Enriched/Water-Lean Polymer Interfacial Layer Toward Practical Zn-Iodine Batteries.

Although the meticulous design of functional diversity within the polymer interfacial layer holds paramount significance in mitigating the challenges associated with hydrogen evolution reactions and dendrite growth in zinc anodes, this pursuit remains a formidable task. Here, a large-scale producible zinc-enriched/water-lean polymer interfacial layer, derived from carboxymethyl chitosan (CCS), is constructed on zinc anodes by integration of electrodeposition and a targeted complexation strategy for highly reversible Zn plating/stripping chemistry. Zinc ions-induced crowding effect between CCS skeleton creates a strong hydrogen bonding environment and squeezes the moving space for water/anion counterparts, therefore greatly reducing the number of active water molecules and alleviating cathodic I attack.

Interfacial Protection Engineering of Sodium Nanoparticles toward Dendrite-Free and Long-Life Sodium Metal Battery.

The instability of interfacial solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) layer of metallic sodium (Na) anode during cycles results in the rapid capacity decay of sodium metal batteries (SMBs). Herein, the concept of interfacial protection engineering of Na nanoparticles (Na-NPs) is proposed first to achieve stable, dendrite-free, and long-life SMB. Employing an ion-exchange strategy, conformal Sn-Na alloy-SEI on the interface of Na-NPs is constructed, forming Sn@Na-NPs.