Tailoring the Solvation Environment Enables Dendrite-Free Zn Anodes for Stable Zinc-Ion Batteries

Among sustainable energy storage systems, the aqueous Zn metal battery has stimulated fervent attention. However, dendrite growth, coupled with side reactions, is a major obstacle toward the widespread commercialization of aqueous zinc-ion batteries. An effective strategy is to deploy a modified electrolyte that could control the working cation solvation structure to improve the stability and reversibility. In this work, we employ 3-hydroxy-4,5-dimethyl-2(5H)-furanone (HDF) for tailoring the solvation environment of the electrolyte. The HDF molecule with high electron density coordinates with Zn2+ and the H2O molecule, changing the solvation structure with uniform 3D diffusion and lessening the water activity, which enables the dendrite-free Zn anode with high reversibility. Batteries with HDF exhibit a long lifespan of 1200 h at 2 mA cm(-2) and good reversibility with 99.79% Coulombic efficiency over 900 cycles. The Zn//NH4V4O10 pouch battery with HDF delivers a higher capacity of 216 mAh g(-1) over 600 cycles than the battery with the pure ZnSO4 electrolyte.

Automated summary

This study utilizes 3-hydroxy-4,5-dimethyl-2(5H)-furanone (HDF) to modify the solvation environment of the electrolyte, resulting in a dendrite-free zinc anode with high reversibility and stability.