Huang Jiangtao, Zhong Yunpeng, Fu Hongwei, Zhao Yunxiang, Li Shenglong, Xie Yiman, Zhang Hao, Lu Bingan, Chen Lina, Liang Shuquan, Zhou Jiang
School of Materials Science & Engineering, Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Electronic Packaging and Advanced Functional Materials of Hunan Province, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, 410083, China.
School of Physics and Electronics, Hunan University, Changsha, Hunan, 410082, China.
Adv Mater. 2024 Aug;36(33):e2406257. doi: 10.1002/adma.202406257. Epub 2024 Jun 27.
Interfacial instability within aqueous zinc batteries (AZBs) spurs technical obstacles including parasitic side reactions and dendrite failure to reach the practical application standards. Here, an interfacial engineering is showcased by employing a bio- derived zincophilic macromolecule as the electrolyte additive (0.037 wt%), which features a long-chain configuration with laterally distributed hydroxyl and sulfate anion groups, and has the propensity to remodel the electric double layer of Zn anodes. Tailored Zn-rich compact layer is the result of their adaptive adsorption that effectively homogenizes the interfacial concentration field, while enabling a hybrid nucleation and growth mode characterized as nuclei-rich and space-confined dense plating. Further resonated with curbed corrosion and by-products, a dendrite-free deposition morphology is achieved. Consequently, the macromolecule-modified zinc anode delivers over 1250 times of reversible plating/stripping at a practical area capacity of 5 mAh cm, as well as a high zinc utilization rate of 85%. The Zn//NHVO pouch cell with the maximum capacity of 1.02 Ah can be steadily operated at 71.4 mA g (0.25 C) with 98.7% capacity retained after 50 cycles, which demonstrates the scale-up capability and highlights a "low input and high return" interfacial strategy toward practical AZBs.
水系锌电池（AZB）中的界面不稳定性引发了包括寄生副反应和枝晶失效等技术障碍，使其无法达到实际应用标准。在此，展示了一种界面工程，通过使用一种生物衍生的亲锌大分子作为电解质添加剂（0.037 wt%），其具有带有横向分布的羟基和硫酸根阴离子基团的长链结构，并且倾向于重塑锌阳极的双电层。定制的富锌致密层是其适应性吸附的结果，这种吸附有效地使界面浓度场均匀化，同时实现了一种混合形核和生长模式，其特征为富核和空间受限的致密镀层。进一步抑制了腐蚀和副产物，实现了无枝晶的沉积形态。因此，大分子修饰的锌阳极在5 mAh cm的实际面积容量下可实现超过1250次的可逆镀覆/剥离，以及85%的高锌利用率。最大容量为1.02 Ah的Zn//NHVO软包电池在71.4 mA g（0.25 C）下可稳定运行，50次循环后容量保持率为98.7%，这展示了其放大能力，并突出了一种针对实际水系锌电池的“低投入高回报”界面策略。
