Synergistic Solvation and Interface Regulations of Eco‐Friendly Silk Peptide Additive Enabling Stable Aqueous Zinc‐Ion Batteries

• Published in: Advanced functional materials Vol. 32; no. 23
• Main Authors: Wang, Baojun, Zheng, Rong, Yang, Wei, Han, Xin, Hou, Chengyi, Zhang, Qinghong, Li, Yaogang, Li, Kerui, Wang, Hongzhi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.06.2022
• Subjects: Anodes; Aqueous electrolytes; eco‐friendly additives; Electrolytes; Electrostatic shielding; interface regulation; Materials science; Peptides; polar groups; Silk; silk peptides; Solvation; solvation structures; Zinc; Zn anode stabilization
• ISSN: 1616-301X; 1616-3028
• DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202112693

Aqueous Zn‐ion batteries have aroused much attention recently, yet challenges still exist in the lack of low‐cost, highly stable electrolytes to tackle the serious side reactions at Zn anode–electrolyte interface. Herein, a ZnSO4‐based low‐cost aqueous electrolyte is demonstrated with a small amount of eco‐friendly silk peptide as an efficient additive. Compared with silk sericin and fibroin, silk peptide with abundant strong polar groups (COOH and NH2) suppresses the side reactions. Namely, silk peptide regulates the solvation structure of Zn2+ to decrease coordinated active H2O and SO42−, and tends to anchor on Zn anode surface for the isolation of contact H2O/SO42− as well as electrostatic shielding, demonstrating synergistic solvation and interface regulating effect. Consequently, the excellent cycle life (3000 h) and Coulombic efficiency (99.7%) of Zn anodes are revealed in 2 m ZnSO4 electrolyte with only 5 mg mL−1 of silk peptide (≈0.49 USD L−1), promising practical applications of reversible zinc‐ion batteries. An eco‐friendly, low‐cost silk peptide with abundant polar groups as the electrolyte additive can prevent dendrite growth, H2 evolution, and corrosion by‐products through synergistic solvation and interface regulations to stabilize Zn anodes.