Stable amorphous SEI with flexible ZrSiO network by chemical injection of Si

Amorphous structures have been widely applied in zinc anode protection, due to their optimized ion diffusion paths and abundant dangling bonds. However, the amorphization process significantly impairs structural stability which reduces the cycling performance. To address this challenge, researchers incorporated a silicon-based coupling agent into the c-AS-UiO system, achieving performance optimization by regulating the amorphous structure. The reconstructed material forms a flexible ZrSiO network, which can form a strong bonding interaction with the zinc substrate. Both theoretical calculations and experimental results confirm that this unique network structure can effectively improve the mechanical properties of the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI), thereby adapting to the volume fluctuations of the anode during battery cycling. Meanwhile, the introduction of silicon also stabilizes the system by dispersing electrons, and mitigates the tip effect caused by ion aggregation. Ultimately, under the protection of the stable SEI layer, uniform deposition of zinc ions is achieved, fundamentally suppressing the problem of dendrite growth. Experimental results show that the symmetric cell composed of the zinc anode modified with c-AS-UiO (denoted as c-AS-UiO@Zn) achieves a cycle life of over 3300 h under 15 mA cm^-2 and 1 mAh cm^-2. Furthermore, the full cell assembled by pairing this modified anode with MnO₂ cathode still maintains excellent cycling stability after 2000 cycles. This study provides a new direction for the application of amorphous materials in zinc anode protection, and also offers insights for achieving anode stability through the optimization of amorphous structures.