Nonionic Surfactant-Assisted <i>In Situ</i> Generation of Stable Passivation Protective Layer for Highly Stable Aqueous Zn Metal Anodes

Abstract

A highly stable interface for aqueous rechargeable Zn batteries is of importance to inhibit the growth of Zn dendrites and suppress the side reactions. In this work, we have developed a stable honeycomb-like ZnO passivation protective layer on the Zn surface, which is <i>in situ</i> generated with the assistance of a nonionic surfactant additive (polyethylene glycol tert-octylphenyl ether, denoted as PEGTE). The ZnO passivation layer can facilitate the uniform distribution of the electric field, guiding the uniform deposition of Zn²⁺ and inhibit the generation of dendrites. As a result, the symmetric cell using the electrolyte with PEGTE shows an excellent performance at high areal capacity, reflected by stable cycling for over 2400 h at 5 mAh/cm² and 1300 h at 10 mAh/cm². The full cell paired with V₂O₅ demonstrates a long lifespan for more than 600 cycles at a low negative/positive capacity ratio.