近日，华中科技大学教授黄云辉及其课题组的最新研究提出了锌水电池共溶剂电解质策略的动力学补偿机制。相关论文于2025年3月3日发表于国际顶尖学术期刊《美国化学会杂志》上。

该研究组系统地研究和比较了Zn²⁺在纯水环境下与各种氧配位共溶剂的相互作用，以及Zn²⁺与OTf^-在含有不同氧配位共溶剂的混合溶剂环境下的相互作用。定量分析和总结了不同氧配位共溶剂对Zn²⁺溶剂化结构和离子迁移动力学影响的差异。在此基础上，该研究组提出了一种新的共溶剂电解质策略动力学补偿机制，通过削弱阴离子对相互作用和增加Zn²⁺转移数，来补偿共溶剂的引入所造成的动力学损失。

理论和实验均表明，该策略可以在提高电化学性能的同时实现水锌电池的动力学补偿。这项工作为设计具有优异电化学性能的共溶剂电解质提供了全面而深入的认识。更重要的是，所提出的策略可以应用于其他具有类似性质的共溶剂和其他水性电池系统。

据介绍，水性锌电池是实现本质安全储能的理想选择，但寄生副反应使其在实际应用中难以实现。虽然共溶剂电解质能有效抑制锌枝晶，减轻意外的副反应，但也带来了不可避免的动力学损失。

附：英文原文

Title: Kinetics Compensation Mechanism in Cosolvent Electrolyte Strategy for Aqueous Zinc Batteries

Author: Jianlong Cong, Yueda Wang, Xing Lin, Zhimei Huang, Hua Wang, Jianbo Li, Le Hu, Haiming Hua, Jianxing Huang, Yu-Chang Lin, Henghui Xu, Zhen Li, Yunhui Huang

Issue&Volume: March 3, 2025

Abstract: Aqueous zinc batteries are the ideal choices to realize intrinsically safe energy storage, but  parasitic side reactions make it difficult to achieve in practice. Although the cosolvent electrolyte effectively inhibits zinc dendrites and mitigates unexpected side reactions, it brings inevitable kinetics losses. Here, we systematically investigate and compare the interactions between Zn²⁺ and various oxygen-coordinated cosolvents under pure aqueous environments and the interactions between Zn²⁺ and OTf^– under mixed solvent environments containing different oxygen-coordinated cosolvents. And the differences in the effect of different oxygen-coordinated cosolvents on the solvation structure of Zn²⁺ and the kinetics of ion migration are quantitatively analyzed and summarized. On this basis, we propose a new kinetics compensation mechanism in cosolvent electrolyte strategy that can compensate the kinetics losses due to the introduction of cosolvents by weakening the anion–cation pair interaction and increasing the Zn²⁺ transfer number. Theory and experiments both demonstrate that this strategy can achieve kinetics compensation of aqueous zinc batteries while improving the electrochemical performance. This work provides a comprehensive and deep understanding of designing cosolvent electrolytes with superior electrochemical performance. More importantly, the proposed strategy can be applied to other cosolvents with similar properties and other aqueous battery systems.

DOI: 10.1021/jacs.4c16880

Source: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jacs.4c16880