Screening anionic groups within zwitterionic additives for eliminating hydrogen evolution and dendrites in aqueous zinc ion batteries
2025-09-09
(Press-News.org)
As global demand grows for safe, low-cost, and sustainable energy storage technologies, aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) have gained increasing attention due to their high theoretical capacity, environmental friendliness, and intrinsic safety. However, their practical application has long been hindered by two major challenges: uncontrolled zinc dendrite growth and hydrogen evolution reactions (HER), both of which degrade battery performance and lifespan.
Now, a collaborative research team from Nanjing University, The University of Queensland, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University has developed an innovative solution using zwitterionic electrolyte additives. Their findings, published in Nano-Micro Letters, offer a promising pathway toward ultra-stable and long-life AZIBs.
Why This Matters
Dendrite-Free Zinc Deposition: The additive promotes uniform deposition along the Zn (002) crystal plane, effectively suppressing dendrite formation.
Hydrogen Evolution Suppression: It stabilizes the local pH environment, significantly reducing HER and associated parasitic reactions.
Long Cycle Life: The modified electrolyte enables over 4,000 charge–discharge cycles with an ultra-low average capacity decay of just 0.014% per cycle.
Key Innovation: Molecular Design Matters
The researchers systematically compared three zwitterionic compounds—CBMA, SBMA, and MPC—all featuring the same quaternary ammonium cation but different anionic groups: carboxylate, sulfonate, and phosphate, respectively.
Among them, MPC (2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine) emerged as the most effective additive due to its unique dual functionality:
pH Buffering: The phosphate group can buffer both H⁺ and OH⁻ ions, maintaining a stable electrolyte environment during cycling.
Zn (002) Orientation: Promotes dense, flat zinc deposition, minimizing surface roughness and suppressing dendrite formation.
Enhanced Desolvation: Reduces the activation energy required for Zn2+ desolvation, mitigating water-induced side reactions and improving plating/stripping reversibility.
Performance Highlights
Zn//Zn symmetric cell: Stable cycling for over 5,000 hours at 1 mA cm-2 without short-circuiting.
Zn//Cu half-cell: Achieves a high Coulombic efficiency of 99.6% over 600 cycles.
Full cell (Zn//NaVO): Demonstrates exceptional stability over 4,000 cycles at 5 A g-1 with only 0.014% capacity fade per cycle.
Pouch cell prototype: Retains 86.6% of its initial capacity after 300 cycles under high current density and low N/P ratio (~3.6), showing strong practical potential.
Mechanistic Insights
Using a combination of electrochemical analysis, DFT calculations, and molecular dynamics simulations, the team revealed that:
Zwitterions adsorb preferentially on the Zn surface, forming a protective interfacial layer.
MPC enhances Zn2+ flux uniformity and guides oriented deposition along the thermodynamically stable (002) plane.
The additive reconstructs the solvation shell of Zn2+, reducing water activity and suppressing HER.
Future Outlook
This work highlights the critical role of anionic group selection in zwitterionic additives and demonstrates how molecular-level electrolyte engineering can solve long-standing challenges in AZIBs. The compatibility, low cost, and scalability of MPC make it a highly promising candidate for next-generation energy storage systems.
Moreover, the MPC molecule includes a polymerizable methacrylate group, opening the door for future development of functional polymer electrolytes and solid-state batteries.
Stay tuned for more exciting developments from this interdisciplinary research team as they continue to push the boundaries of safe, sustainable, and high-performance energy storage technologies!
END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2025-09-09
Thorsten Becker, a professor at The University of Texas at Austin’s Jackson School of Geosciences, is the author of a new textbook, “Tectonic Geodynamics.” The book is co-authored with Claudio Faccenna, who was formerly at UT, and is now a professor at the Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam and at Roma TRE University.
The textbook is the first to integrate tectonics, structural geology, and geodynamics in a single volume. It will be released in November by Princeton University Press and is available for pre-order.
Although ...
2025-09-09
A new approach to manufacturing multicolour lenses could inspire a new generation of tiny, cheap, and powerful optics for portable devices such as phones and drones.
The design uses layers of metamaterials to simultaneously focus a range of wavelengths from an unpolarised source and over a large diameter, overcoming a major limitation of metalenses, said the first author of the paper reporting the design, Mr Joshua Jordaan, from the Research School of Physics at the Australian National University and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems (TMOS).
“Our design has a lot of nice features ...
2025-09-09
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a complex condition marked by a gradual decline in kidney function, which can ultimately progress to end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Globally, the prevalence of the CKD ranges from 8% to 16%, with about 5% to 10% of those diagnosed eventually reaching ESRD, making it a major public health challenge.
In a new study, researchers used machine learning and deep learning models, as well as explainable artificial intelligence (AI), to assess integrated clinical and claims data with the goal of improving prediction ...
2025-09-09
Researchers in China have developed a novel, low-cost catalyst that efficiently removes antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) from aquaculture wastewater, offering a potential new solution to one of today’s most pressing environmental and public health challenges.
The study, published in Biochar, reports on a bismuth ferrite (BiFeO₃, BFO) catalyst doped with peanut shell-derived biochar (BC). When combined with peroxymonosulfate (PMS), the biochar-doped composite rapidly inactivated ARB. In laboratory tests, the PMS/5% BC-BFO system removed nearly two orders of magnitude of ARB within just 10 minutes, achieving a reaction rate of 0.4401 min⁻¹.
According to the research team, ...
2025-09-08
Imagine being able to flip a light switch to control disease pathways inside a living cell. A team of visionary researchers at the Texas A&M University Health Science Center (Texas A&M Health) is making this dream a reality with their groundbreaking genetic tools known as photo-inducible binary interaction tools, or PhoBITs.
Published in Nature Communications, the study describes how PhoBITs enable researchers to harness the precision of a conductor leading an orchestra—using pulses of blue light to command specific proteins to start or stop their activity inside living cells with unparalleled ...
2025-09-08
A multilayer film that reflects heat while letting through light needed for photosynthesis could make greenhouse agriculture more energy- and water-efficient. Such a film has been developed by engineers at the University of California, Davis, and is described in a recent paper in Advanced Energy & Sustainability Research.
Greenhouses enable higher yields of fruits and vegetables while conserving land,water, and fertilizers. But in warm climates, such as California’s Central Valley, the Mediterranean, or the Middle East, they can become extremely hot, which damages crops. Cooling greenhouses usually involves mechanical ventilation (fans) or evaporative cooling, which ...
2025-09-08
SEATTLE, Wash. – Sept. 8, 2025 – A large portion of the global population with diabetes remains undiagnosed or is not receiving optimal care, according to a new study published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington School of Medicine and a global network of collaborators conducted the analysis of the diabetes care cascade for all ages, both sexes, and 204 countries and territories from 2000 to 2023.
In 2023, an estimated 44% of people aged 15 and older with diabetes ...
2025-09-08
As the COVID-19 pandemic wound down, so did the federal government’s funding to states that allowed all Medicaid enrollees to keep their coverage even if they no longer would have been eligible otherwise.
This “great unwinding” at the end of March 2023 meant that more than 25 million people—about 30 percent of all Medicaid recipients—were removed from the program.
Now, in the first study of its kind, researchers have analyzed how the unwinding affected the payer mix for children’s emergency department visits in Texas. During ...
2025-09-08
Bright children from poorer backgrounds are twice as likely to be admitted to hospital with mental health problems than high-achievers with affluent upbringings.
That’s according to a new study of tens of thousands of secondary school pupils in England, published today in the peer-reviewed journal Oxford Review of Education, which also demonstrates poorer teens are more likely to be treated for alcohol and drug use and self-harm.
The paper, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, shows too they are more likely to become pregnant.
The ...
2025-09-08
Researchers have developed a material that can sense tiny changes within the body, such as during an arthritis flare-up, and release drugs exactly where and when they are needed.
The squishy material can be loaded with anti-inflammatory drugs that are released in response to small changes in pH in the body. During an arthritis flare-up, a joint becomes inflamed and slightly more acidic than the surrounding tissue.
The material, developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge, has been designed to respond to this natural change in pH. As acidity increases, the material becomes softer and more jelly-like, triggering the release of drug molecules that can be encapsulated ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Screening anionic groups within zwitterionic additives for eliminating hydrogen evolution and dendrites in aqueous zinc ion batteries
