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Tailoring crystallization zinc hydroxide sulfates growth towards stable zinc deposition chemistry

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Abstract

The unstable zinc anode/electrolyte interface induced by corrosion, interfacial water splitting reaction, and dendrite growth seriously degrades the performances of metal Zn anode in aqueous electrolyte. Herein, the nucleation and growth of zinc hydroxide sulfate (ZHS), an interfacial by-product, has been tailored by Tween 80 in the electrolyte, which thereby assists in in-situ forming a dense solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) with small-sized ZHS and evenly distributed Tween 80. This SEI has high corrosion resistance and uniform distribution of zinc ions, which not only contributes to blocking the interfacial side reactions but also induces stable and calm zinc plating/stripping. Consequently, the modified electrolyte can confer the assembled Zn∥Zn symmetric cell with a stable operation life over 1500 h at 1 mA·cm−2 and 1 mAh·cm−2 as well as the practical Zn∥NH4V4O10 full battery with a high-rate capacity of 120 mAh·g−1 at the current density of 5 A·g−1. This work provides a way for regulating and reusing interfacial by-products, and a new sight on stabilization electrodes/electrolyte interfaces.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the Material Corrosion and Protection Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province Support Program (No. 2023CL02), the Yunnan Fundamental Research Projects (No. 202201AU070151), and the Innovation Fund of Postgraduate, Sichuan University of Science & Engineering (No. Y2022010).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Sichuan University of Science and Engineering, Zigong, 643000, China

    Kaixin Huang, Xianguang Zeng, Dan Zhang & Chengyan Wen

  2. Department of Chemistry, College of Resource and Environment, Baoshan University, Baoshan, 678000, China

    Kaixin Huang & Yujie Wang

  3. College of Optoelectronic Engineering, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Chengdu, 610225, China

    Mu Lan & Yi Guo

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  1. Kaixin Huang
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Correspondence to Yujie Wang or Yi Guo.

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Huang, K., Zeng, X., Zhang, D. et al. Tailoring crystallization zinc hydroxide sulfates growth towards stable zinc deposition chemistry. Nano Res. 17, 5243–5250 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-024-6479-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-024-6479-7

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