In Situ Construction of Protective Films on Zn Metal Anodes via Natural Protein Additives Enabling High-Performance Zinc Ion Batteries

作者:Xu, Jing*; Lv, Wenli; Yang, Wang; Jin, Yang; Jin, Qianzheng; Sun, Bin; Zhang, Zili; Wang, Tianyi; Zheng, Linfeng; Shi, Xiaolong*; Sun, Bing; Wang, Guoxiu*
来源:ACS Nano, 2022, 16(7): 11392-11404.
DOI:10.1021/acsnano.2c05285

摘要

The strong activity of water molecules causes a series of parasitic side reactions on Zn anodes in the aqueous electrolytes. Herein, we introduce silk fibroin (SF) as a multifunctional electrolyte additive for aqueous zinc-ion (Zn-ion) batteries. The secondary structure transformation of SF molecules from alpha-helices to random coils in the aqueous electrolytes allows them to break the hydrogen bond network among free water molecules and participate in Zn2+ ion solvation structure. The SF molecules released from the [Zn(H2O)(4)(SF)](2+) solvation sheath appear to be gradually adsorbed on the surface of Zn anodes and in situ form a hydrostable and self-healable protective film. This SF-based protective film not only shows strong Zn2+ ion affinity to promote homogeneous Zn deposition but also has good insulating behavior to suppress parasitic reactions. Benefiting from these multifunctional advantages, the cycle life of the Zn||Zn symmetric cells reaches over 1600 h in SF-containing ZnSO4 electrolytes. In addition, by adopting a potassium vanadate cathode, the full cell shows excellent cycling stability for 1000 cycles at 3 A g(-1). The in situ construction of a protective film on the Zn anode from natural protein molecules provides an effective strategy to achieve high-performance Zn metal anodes for Zn-ion batteries.