Maltose Additive Enables Compacted Deposition of Zn Ions for Stabilizing the Zn Anode

Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) have emerged as one of the most promising energy storage technologies due to their high safety and cost-effectiveness. However, several challenges associated with the Zn metal anode, such as dendrite growth, corrosion, and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), have hindered further applications of AZIBs. Herein, maltose (MT) is used as a functional electrolyte additive to protect the Zn metal electrode during the interface deposition process. The additive can effectively affect the interface of Zn metal, suppressing HER and corrosion reactions. Moreover, it facilitates the uniform deposition of Zn by inducing Zn2+ to form a stable (100) crystal plane. As a result, the symmetric cell exhibited stable cycling performance for 2000 h at a current density of 2 mA cm–2, and the Zn||NH4V4O10 full cell maintained steady cycling for 1000 cycles at 2 A g–1. This study provides an approach to achieve uniform Zn deposition through additives.