A Rigid-Soft Graded Organic-Inorganic Interlayer for Durable and Corrosion-Resistant Zinc Anodes.

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Electrochemistry
• Energy Storage

Background:

• Aqueous zinc (Zn)-ion batteries are promising for renewable energy storage but face challenges with Zn anode stability.
• Poor Zn plating/stripping reversibility, Zn dendrite growth, and side reactions limit the performance of current Zn anodes.
• Existing interfacial modification strategies are insufficient to address these issues comprehensively.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and fabricate an organic-inorganic hybrid interfacial layer with a rigid-to-soft graded structure for dendrite-free and stable Zn anodes.
• To investigate the effectiveness of this novel interface in suppressing Zn dendrites and improving Zn ion transport.
• To evaluate the long-term cycling stability and performance of Zn anodes modified with the hybrid interface in aqueous batteries.

Main Methods:

• Development of a liquid plasma-assisted oxidation technology to create a porous ZnO inner framework in situ.
• Coating a soft polymer layer onto the ZnO framework to form a graded organic-inorganic hybrid interface.
• Fabrication and testing of Zn symmetric cells and zinc-iodine full batteries with the modified Zn anodes.

Main Results:

• The hybrid interface effectively suppressed Zn dendrite growth and side reactions, facilitating continuous Zn ion transport and enhancing corrosion resistance.
• Zn symmetric cells demonstrated long cycling stability exceeding 6000 hours at 1 mA cm⁻² for 1 mAh cm⁻².
• Zinc-iodine full batteries with the modified anodes exhibited stable cycling for over 10,000 cycles at 2.0 A g⁻¹ with negligible capacity decay.

Conclusions:

• The developed rigid-to-soft graded hybrid interface is a promising strategy for fabricating high-performance and stable Zn anodes.
• The liquid plasma-assisted oxidation route offers a novel method for constructing advanced interfacial layers for next-generation aqueous batteries.
• This work paves the way for the practical application of aqueous zinc-ion batteries in large-scale energy storage systems.