<p>Aqueous Zn metal batteries offer a safe, low-cost route to grid-scale energy storage yet suffer from dendrite growth and corrosion issues. Conventional electrolyte designs largely overlook electric-field-driven interfacial dynamics such as solvation structure evolution and component redistribution during operation. Here, we propose an affinitive additive strategy featuring high donor number and dipole moment, exemplified by N,N-dimethylurea (DMU), to dynamically modulate Zn<sup>2+</sup> solvation and the structure of the electric double layer under operational electric fields. Guided by physically grounded molecular descriptors, we identify additives capable of electric-field-induced interfacial enrichment, during which strong dipole-field coupling promotes their incorporation into the Zn<sup>2+</sup> solvation shell and promotes more uniform Zn deposition. As a result, the optimized electrolyte achieves a coulombic efficiency of ~99.9% for Zn plating/stripping with only 2 wt% additive. It also sustains stable operation for 700 h at 60% depth of discharge, outperforming the baseline electrolyte. Descriptor-guided screening further reveals that other candidates follow the same pattern, suggesting broader applicability of this approach. Practical Zn | |ZnI<sub>2</sub> full cells with high areal capacity (~3 mAh cm<sup>-2</sup>) and low N/P ratio (~1.8) achieve 750 stable cycles at 0.15 A g<sup>−1</sup> with 84.5% capacity retention.</p>

错误:搜索内容不能为空,请输入英文关键词
错误:关键词超出字数限制,请精简
高级检索

Electric-field-reinforced affinitive electrolytes for highly reversible aqueous zinc metal batteries

  • Ming Yang,
  • Bao Zhang,
  • An Duan,
  • Sha Luo,
  • Luyang Ge,
  • Jiaqi Wang,
  • Yuxi Zhang,
  • Yu Feng,
  • Xiao Huang,
  • Yuyang Tang,
  • Jia Yao,
  • Hao Wang,
  • Houzhao Wan,
  • Wei Sun

摘要

Aqueous Zn metal batteries offer a safe, low-cost route to grid-scale energy storage yet suffer from dendrite growth and corrosion issues. Conventional electrolyte designs largely overlook electric-field-driven interfacial dynamics such as solvation structure evolution and component redistribution during operation. Here, we propose an affinitive additive strategy featuring high donor number and dipole moment, exemplified by N,N-dimethylurea (DMU), to dynamically modulate Zn2+ solvation and the structure of the electric double layer under operational electric fields. Guided by physically grounded molecular descriptors, we identify additives capable of electric-field-induced interfacial enrichment, during which strong dipole-field coupling promotes their incorporation into the Zn2+ solvation shell and promotes more uniform Zn deposition. As a result, the optimized electrolyte achieves a coulombic efficiency of ~99.9% for Zn plating/stripping with only 2 wt% additive. It also sustains stable operation for 700 h at 60% depth of discharge, outperforming the baseline electrolyte. Descriptor-guided screening further reveals that other candidates follow the same pattern, suggesting broader applicability of this approach. Practical Zn | |ZnI2 full cells with high areal capacity (~3 mAh cm-2) and low N/P ratio (~1.8) achieve 750 stable cycles at 0.15 A g−1 with 84.5% capacity retention.