Addition of Dioxane in Electrolyte Promotes (002)-Textured Zinc Growth and Suppressed Side Reactions in Zinc-Ion Batteries

The reversibility and cyclability of aqueous zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) are largely determined by the stabilization of the Zn anode. Therefore, a stable anode/electrolyte interface capable of inhibiting dendrites and side reactions is crucial for high-performing ZIBs. In this study, we investigated the adsorption of 1,4-dioxane (DX) to promote the exposure of Zn (002) facets and prevent dendrite growth. DX appears to reside at the interface and suppress the detrimental side reactions. ZIBs with the addition of DX demonstrated a long-term cycling stability of 1000 h in harsh conditions of 10 mA cm–2 with an ultrahigh cumulative plated capacity of 5 Ah cm–2 and shows a good reversibility with an average Coulombic efficiency of 99.7%. The Zn//NH4V4O10 full battery with DX achieves a high specific capacity (202 mAh g–1 at 5 A g–1) and capacity retention (90.6% after 5000 cycles), much better than that of ZIBs with the pristine ZnSO4 electrolyte. By selectively adjusting the Zn2+ deposition rate on the crystal facets with adsorbed molecules, this work provides a promising modulation strategy at the molecular level for high-performing Zn anodes and can potentially be applied to other metal anodes suffering from instability and irreversibility.