Electrolyte design for reversible zinc metal chemistry

Electrolyte design for reversible zinc metal chemistry

Nature Communications

10.1038/s41467-024-55657-1

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-55657-1

Bao Zhang, Jia Yao, Chao Wu, Yuanjian Li, Jia Liu, Jiaqi Wang, Tao Xiao, Tao Zhang, Daqian Cai, Jiawen Wu, Zhi Wei Seh, Shibo Xi, Hao Wang, Wei Sun, Houzhao Wan, Hong Jin Fan

03 January 2025

Zhang, B., Yao, J., Wu, C., Li, Y., Liu, J., Wang, J., Xiao, T., Zhang, T., Cai, D., Wu, J., Seh, Z. W., Xi, S., Wang, H., Sun, W., Wan, H., & Fan, H. J. (2025). Electrolyte design for reversible zinc metal chemistry. Nature Communications, 16(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-55657-1

Metal anodes hold significant promise for next-generation energy storage, yet achieving highly reversible plating/stripping remains challenging due to dendrite formation and side reactions. Here we present a tailored electrolyte design to surpass 99.9% Coulombic efficiency (CE) in zinc metal anodes by co engineering salts and solvents to address two critical factors: plating morphology and the anode-electrolyte interface. By integrating a dual-salt approach and organic co-solvent design, these issues can be effectively addressed. The resulting hybrid dual-salt electrolyte renders CE of 99.95% at 1mAcm−2 at a medium concentration (3.5m). Building upon the near-unity CE, an anode-free cell with ZnI2 cathode can stably run more than 1000 cycles under practical conditions with minimal capacity loss. Our findings provide a promising pathway for the design of reversible metal anodes, advancing metal based battery technologies for broader energy storage applications.

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

This research / project is supported by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research - Manufacturing, Trade, and Connectivity Programmatic Fund
Grant Reference no. : M23L9b0052

This research is supported by core funding from: Central Research Fund Award
Grant Reference no. : N/A

This research / project is supported by the Ministry of Education - Academic Research Fund Tier 2This article is licensed under a Creative CommonsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License,which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution andreproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriatecredit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to theCreative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensedmaterial.Youdonothavepermissionunderthislicencetoshareadaptedmaterial derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other thirdparty material in this article are included in the article’s CreativeCommons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to thematerial. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commonslicence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation orexceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directlyfrom the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visithttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Grant Reference no. : MOE-T2EP50121-0006

This article is licensed under a Creative CommonsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s CreativeCommons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commonslicence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visithttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

https://oar.a-star.edu.sg/communities-collections/articles/23557

2041-1723

Institute of Materials Research and Engineering

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-55657-1