A multifunctional quasi-solid-state polymer electrolyte with highly selective ion highways for practical zinc ion batteries

Chengwu Yang; Pattaraporn Woottapanit; Sining Geng; Rungroj Chanajaree; Yue Shen; Kittima Lolupiman; Wanwisa Limphirat; Teerachote Pakornchote; Thiti Bovornratanaraks; Xinyu Zhang; Jiaqian Qin; Yunhui Huang

doi:10.1038/s41467-024-55656-2

A multifunctional quasi-solid-state polymer electrolyte with highly selective ion highways for practical zinc ion batteries

Nat Commun. 2025 Jan 2;16(1):183. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-55656-2.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials Science, Faculty of Science, Center of Excellence in Responsive Wearable Materials, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand. [email protected].
² State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, 066004, P. R. China. [email protected].
³ Department of Materials Science, Faculty of Science, Center of Excellence in Responsive Wearable Materials, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, 066004, P. R. China.
⁵ Metallurgy and Materials Science Research Institute, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Materials Processing and Die & Mould Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China.
⁷ Synchrotron Light Research Institute (Public Organization), Nakhon Ratchasima, 30000, Thailand.
⁸ Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Extreme Conditions Physics Research Laboratory, Physics of Energy Materials Research Unit, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand.
⁹ State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, 066004, P. R. China. [email protected].
¹⁰ Department of Materials Science, Faculty of Science, Center of Excellence in Responsive Wearable Materials, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 10330, Thailand. [email protected].
¹¹ State Key Laboratory of Materials Processing and Die & Mould Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China. [email protected].

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

The uncontrolled dendrite growth and detrimental parasitic reactions of Zn anodes currently impede the large-scale implementation of aqueous zinc ion batteries. Here, we design a versatile quasi-solid-state polymer electrolyte with highly selective ion transport channels via molecular crosslinking of sodium polyacrylate, lithium magnesium silicate and cellulose nanofiber. The abundant negatively charged ionic channels modulate Zn²⁺ desolvation process and facilitate ion transport. Moreover, an in-situ formed Zn-Mg-Si medium-entropy alloy on Zn anode allows for an improved Zn nucleation kinetics and homogeneous Zn deposition. These combined advantages of the polymer electrolyte enable Zn anodes to achieve an average Coulombic efficiency of 99.7 % over 2400 cycles and highly reversible cycling up to 600 h with large depth of discharge of 85.6%. The resultant Zn | |V₂O₅ offers a stable long-term cycling performance and its pouch cell achieves a cycling capacity of 1.13 Ah at industrial-level loading mass of 31.3 mg.

Abstract

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