Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 7, 2026

Zinc-Sponge Battery Electrodes that Suppress Dendrites
Published on: September 29, 2020
Phase-Behavior-Driven Hydrogen-Bond Engineering Enables Temperature-Resilient Fibrous Zinc-Ion Batteries
Zhaoxi Shen1, Zicheng Zhai1, Tong Zhang1
1College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Key Laboratory of Analytical Science and Technology of Hebei Province, Hebei University, Baoding, P. R. China.
None:
Fibrous energy-storage systems serve as a core component in the next-generation flexible and wearable electronics, yet their practical application is hindered by the limited temperature resilience of aqueous electrolytes and the mechanically fragile electrolyte-electrode interfaces. Herein, we design an in situ deep-eutectic hydrogel electrolyte based on a hydroxyl-rich glycerol-ethylene glycol-H2O system, in which the hydrogen-bond network is engineered to modulate the chemical potential of water and the free-energy landscape governing phase transitions. Strong H2O-H2O H-bonds are converted into a more uniformly distributed weak H-bond network in the electrolyte, thereby reducing the thermodynamic driving force for ice formation at low temperatures while suppressing H2O volatilization at elevated temperatures. Meanwhile, in situ photopolymerization enables the direct formation of a conformal hydrogel layer on the electrode surface, improving interfacial adhesion and mitigating parasitic reactions such as hydrogen evolution and Zn corrosion. Benefiting from the coupled thermodynamic and interfacial regulation, Zn||PANI coin cell exhibits stable operation over an ultrawide temperature range of -50°C-100°C and delivers a cycling life exceeding 10 000 cycles with 86.71% capacity retention at 25°C. A fibrous Zn||PANI cell further maintains reliable cycling for over 500 cycles at -25°C, demonstrating the applicability of this strategy for temperature-resilient wearable energy-storage systems.
More Related Videos
11:04Synthesis of Ionic Liquid Based Electrolytes, Assembly of Li-ion Batteries, and Measurements of Performance at High Temperature
Published on: December 20, 2016
07:55Elemental-sensitive Detection of the Chemistry in Batteries through Soft X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy and Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering
Published on: April 17, 2018
Related Concept Videos
Batteries and Fuel Cells
Hydrogen Bonds
Hydrogen Bonds Control the World!
Because hydrogen has very weak electronegativity when it binds with a strongly electronegative atom, such as oxygen or nitrogen, electrons in the bond are unequally shared....