Dendrite-free and long-standing aqueous zinc metal battery achieved by in-situ grown hydrophilic Coordination Supramolecular Networks

Rapid advances in mild aqueous zinc metal batteries (AZMBs) have provided broader prospects for energy storage. However, practical application of AZMBs is hampered by issues such as formation of dendrites, by-products and hydrogen evolution. Herein, we report a new type of zinc anode coated with Coordination Su-pramolecular Networks (CSNs) of zinc dithiosalicylate (Zn-DTA) prepared by in-situ chemical growth. The Zn-DTA layer acts as a natural barrier to inhibit the two-dimensional diffusion of zinc ions on the surface, lead-ing to the uniform deposition. Abundant active sites provided by the coordination network also effectively fa-cilitates the rapid transport of zinc ions inside and improves the electrochemical kinetics. As a result, symmetrical cells assembled with Zn-DTA@Zn electrode exhibit prominent performance of working for 2000 h at 1 mA cm-2. The zinc-copper cells operated for 1000 cycles while average Coulombic efficiency is 99.07%. In addition, the Zn//V2O5 full batteries reveal excellent rate performance and cycled for 1500 cycles at 2 A g-1. We believe that introduction of the multifunctional CSNs can irritate new ideas for the design of anodes. The facile and efficient in-situ growth Zn-DTA coating also makes the scale application of AZMBs step forward.

Automated summary

The application of mild aqueous zinc metal batteries (AZMBs) is hindered by issues such as dendrite formation and hydrogen evolution. In this study, a new type of zinc anode coated with zinc dithiosalicylate coordination supramolecular networks (CSNs) was developed, which effectively inhibits the diffusion of zinc ions and improves the electrochemical kinetics.