Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 28, 2026
Non-aqueous Electrode Processing and Construction of Lithium-ion Coin Cells
Published on: February 1, 2016
Machine-Learning-Guided Molecular Design for Dynamic Self-Activating Interface toward Ah-Level Anode-Free Zn-I2 Pouch
Jia Wu1, Shan Guo2, Yuren Liu1
1School of Materials Science and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Electronic Packaging and Advanced Functional Materials of Hunan Province, Central South University, Changsha410083, P. R. China.
Abstract:
Anode-free Zn batteries are attractive for zero-excess-Zn operation and maximized anode utilization, but reversible high-areal-capacity Zn plating/stripping over large hostless interfaces remains difficult, especially in Ah-level Zn-I2 pouch cells where polyiodide shuttling accelerates capacity decay and corrodes the nascent anode interface. Here, we integrate machine-learning-guided polyiodide regulation with dynamic interfacial reconstruction to establish a self-activating Zn deposition pathway for reversible anode-free Zn-I2 cells. DFT-supervised screening reveals multidentate weak O-C-H···I interactions and chain-assisted confinement as key molecular design principles for polyiodide confinement, guiding the selection of polyethylene glycol 4000 (PE4000). More importantly, PE4000 gates trace reversible Sn/Sn2+ interfacial conversion, enabling dynamic Zn-Sn reconstruction, persistent zincophilic sites, and orientation-regulated Zn nucleation/growth during repeated plating/stripping. Consequently, the optimized anode-free Zn-I2 cells sustain 16,000 cycles at 10 mA cm-2. Single-layer pouch cells operate for over 3000 cycles at 4.65 mAh cm-2, with recovered Sn remaining reusable for another 1000 cycles. Ah-level pouch cells further deliver 2390 Ah cumulative capacity over 2800 cycles. This work establishes a system-level interface-matching strategy for practical high-utilization anode-free batteries.
