Biomimetic mineralization guided protein-based multifunctional bio-separators realizing dendrites free and...

Lithium‑sulfur batteries (LSB) are considered promising energy storage systems owing to their high theoretical energy density and abundant sulfur resources. However, issues such as lithium polysulfide (LiPSs) shuttle, uneven Li⁺ transport, and lithium dendrite growth severely limit their practical deployment. Herein, a biomimetic mineralization (BM) strategy was employed to fabricate a multifunctional separator by integrating Zeolite imidazolate frameworks-8 (ZIF-8) nanocrystals with β-sheet silk fibroin (β-SF) membranes. The β-SF served as a biological scaffold to direct the uniform deposition and growth of ZIF-8, yielding a composite separator with a high surface area and a porous architecture. Theoretical calculations demonstrated that the bioinspired ZIF-8 component provides well-defined ion transport channels and strong adsorption sites, promoting uniform Li⁺ flux and enhancing LiPSs anchoring. This study highlights the benefits of BM in engineering multifunctional composite separators and provides new avenues and insights for exploring LSB separators.