Authors
Dongbeom Kim, Yubeen Lee, Sangmin Ryu, Huisim Moon, Taeyeong Kim, Hyeonah Lim, Sangyeop Lee, Soojin Park, Unyong Jeong
Published in
Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany). Pages e75735. Sep 10, 2026. Epub Sep 10, 2026.
Abstract
Although aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) are emerging as promising candidates for large-scale energy storage due to their intrinsic safety and cost-effectiveness, the practical deployment of metallic zinc (Zn) anodes is still plagued by uncontrolled dendrite growth, corrosion, and competing hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) at the Zn/electrolyte interface. Surface/interface engineering with organic-inorganic hybrid layers has recently proven effective in homogenizing Zn2+ flux and suppressing parasitic reactions. In parallel, ultrathin inorganic oxide coatings such as ZrO2 have been shown to enable dendrite-free cycling in aqueous media. In this study, an amorphous zirconium oxide-carbon (a-ZrOx-C) hybrid thin film is engineered on the Zn anode surface via ultraviolet-ozone treatment, yielding an interphase with a dense ZrOx outer layer and an underlying Zr-O-C network. Such a gradient organic-inorganic architecture is designed to facilitate selective Zn2+ ion transport while simultaneously blocking direct contact between Zn and the electrolyte, thereby mitigating corrosion, HER, and tip-enhanced dendritic growth. The optimized a-ZrOx-C coating layer (30 nm in thickness) on the Zn anode delivers a prolonged cell lifespan of over 1200 h at 1 mA cm-2, and the corresponding Zn||NH4V4O10 full cell maintains a high discharge capacity of 222 mAh g-1 after 300 cycles under 0.3 A g-1.
PMID:
42723408
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 11 Sep 2026.
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