Constructing a Coopetitive H₂O-Poor Buffer Layer for Long-Cycle Stabilization of Zinc-Ion Batteries.

Authors

Hongfei Lu, Zhiyi Du, Chenxu Duan, Yaoting Zhu, Minjie Song, Di Zhang, Nawei Lyu, Yang Jin

Published in

ACS applied materials & interfaces. Jul 22, 2026. Epub Jul 22, 2026.

Abstract

Aqueous zinc-ion battery anodes face corrosion and the hydrogen evolution reaction, causing the Zn anode to grow dendrites and die after piercing the diaphragm during the plating-stripping process. In this work, Carboxylated Cellulose Nanofibers (CNF) were introduced into the ZnSO₄ electrolyte. Owing to their inherent physicochemical properties and a high HOMO energy level, CNF molecules exhibit strong electron-donating capability and preferentially adsorb on the Zn surface. The adsorbed CNF molecules dynamically occupy interfacial active sites, limiting direct contact between H₂O molecules and the Zn anode and thereby forming a H₂O-poor electric double layer (EDL) buffer layer. This adsorption-based interfacial regulation layer effectively suppresses hydrogen evolution, corrosion, and dendrite growth. Specifically, Zn anodes adsorbed by CNF molecules have high cycling stability (more than 3000 h at 5 mA cm^-2 and 1 mAh cm^-2). The Coulombic efficiency of the Zn||Cu half-cell was maintained at 99.41% after 1000 cycles, and the capacity retention of the Zn||ZnI₂ full-cell was 96.8% after 2000 cycles at 4 C. Moreover, the 0.9 Ah Zn||ZnI₂@Ti pouch cell (with 10 × 10 cm AC films) using 1 M ZnSO₄@10% CNF electrolyte retained 56.9% specific capacity after 500 cycles, showing favorable performance.

PMID:
42484616
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 22 Jul 2026.

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