Trehalose in Trace Quantities as a Multifunctional Electrolyte Additive for Highly Reversible Zinc Metal Anodes
Xiao Huang, Taisong Pan, Jian Shao, Qianwan Qin, Ming Li, Weichang Li, Wei Sun, Yuan Lin
Abstract
The unsatisfactory performance of Zn metal anodes significantly impedes the commercial application of aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs). Herein, we introduce a trace amount of a multifunctional trehalose additive to enhance the stability and reversibility of Zn metal anodes. The trehalose additive exhibits a stronger Zn 2+ ion affinity due to abundant lone-pair electrons, disrupting hydrogen bonds in H 2 O, regulating solvation structures, and tuning the Zn–electrolyte interface. Consequently, the Zn metal anode demonstrates a remarkable Coulombic efficiency of 99.80% and a cycle stability exceeding 4500 h at 1 mA cm –2 . Even under stringent conditions of 10 mA cm –2, the Zn metal anode maintains a cumulative capacity of 2500 mA h cm –2 without a short circuit. Furthermore, Zn//Zn symmetric batteries exhibit excellent low-temperature cycle performance (over 400 h at −10 °C). As a proof of concept, assembled Zn//NH 4 V 4 O 10 and Zn//MnO 2 pouch cells demonstrate an improved electrochemical performance. This work presents an electrolyte additive strategy for achieving stable zinc anode operation in AZIBs.