Authors
Cong Wang, Junhang Xu, Hong Zhang, Peng Wang, Shudi Zhang, Yingwen Cheng, Ke Lu, Chun Cheng Yang, Qing Jiang
Published in
Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.). Pages e75379. Oct 13, 2026. Epub Oct 13, 2026.
Abstract
Hydrogel electrolytes (HEs) are promising for aqueous zinc batteries, yet suffer from freezing-induced loss of ionic transport and interfacial instability at subzero temperatures. Here we report a proton-mediated coordination equilibrium that enables nonfreezing Zn2+ transport in hydrogel electrolytes under ultralow-temperature conditions. By coupling phytic acid with zinc phytate, proton activity and Zn-O coordination are dynamically balanced, continuously reconstructing the local hydration environment to suppress hydrogen-bond ordering, stabilize bound water, and prevent water crystallization. Simultaneously, reversible coordination exchange sustains Zn2+ dissociation and migration through a hopping transport mechanism. At the Zn anode, proton-mediated interfacial evolution drives the formation of a ZnS/Zn3(PO4)2-rich hybrid interphase that accelerates interfacial kinetics and suppresses degradation. Consequently, the optimized electrolyte achieves an ionic conductivity of 2.4 mS cm- 1 and an apparent Zn2+ transference number of 0.24 at -60°C, enabling Zn||Zn cells to cycle stably for over 3400 h and Zn||PANI full cells to retain 60.1% of their capacity after 4000 cycles at -60°C. These findings identify proton-mediated coordination equilibrium as a general mechanism for preserving ionic transport in frozen aqueous environments and provide a blueprint for low-temperature electrochemical energy storage.
PMID:
42867029
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 14 Oct 2026.
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