Molecular Configuration Engineering of Electrolyte Additives Enables Adaptive Zinc Anodes and Highly Reversible Zn-S Batteries.

Authors

Long Yu, Yinfeng Guo, Xiaoqing Zhu, Minghui Shan, Jia Zhang, Qingjing Shi, Zhang Cao, Guiyin Xu, Meifang Zhu

Published in

Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.). Pages e75233. Oct 05, 2026. Epub Oct 05, 2026.

Abstract

Aqueous zinc-sulfur batteries (AZSBs) suffer from zinc anode parasitic reactions and slow sulfur cathode kinetics. In this study, we propose a coupled spatial-electronic configuration effect strategy. By selecting additive molecules with different spatial-electronic configurations, we successfully revealed the influence of molecular spatial-electronic configuration on the electrode-electrolyte interfacial adsorption layer. The spatial-electronic configuration of benzyltrimethylammonium  iodide (BTA) enables the formation of a stable adsorption layer at the anode interface, showing an effectively repulsive effect on hydrated protons and suppressing side reactions. Moreover, BTA is a dual-functional additive, and the I^- ions released from BTA further catalyze sulfur redox conversion, thereby enhancing the capacity of Zn-S batteries. As a result, this functional additive electrolyte enables stable cycling for over 10000 h in Zn||Zn symmetric cells, the Zn||Cu cells exhibit an extended cycle life of over 3800 cycles with an average CE exceeding 99.44%, and Zn-S full cells deliver 422 mAh g^-1 after 4000 cycles at 3 A g^-1. This study demonstrates a holistic electrolyte design strategy for highly reversible AZSBs.

PMID:
42834574
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 06 Oct 2026.

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