Unveiling Zinc Stripping and Molecular Engineering for High-Performance Zinc Anode

The unstable zinc anode is a key challenge limiting the cycle life of rechargeable zinc-ion batteries. The current research primarily focuses on the zinc plating process, with strategies to induce uniform zinc deposition for a stable zinc anode. Here, we demonstrate that the zinc stripping process has a more significant impact on the subsequent zinc deposition, which exacerbates the formation of by-products, dendrites, and "dead zinc." Therefore, we propose using aspartyl-phenylalanine methyl ester (APM) molecules to regulate the zinc stripping, achieving uniform stripping of the zinc anode by increasing the stripping overpotential across high-energy barriers. Simultaneously, its localized hydrophobic functional groups effectively inhibit the byproducts triggered by solvated water molecules. The experimental results show that the Zn-APM symmetric cell exhibits excellent cycling stability, with stable cycling over 6500 h (>9 months) at 1 mA cm^-2 for 1 mAh cm^-2 and 700 h at 70% zinc utilization with 10 µm zinc. In addition, the Zn-APM||Zn_0.58V₂O₅·H₂O full cell exhibits 80% capacity retention after 500 cycles at a loading of 8.1 mg cm^-2.