Nonionic Surfactant-Assisted Generation of Stable Passivation Protective Layer for Highly Stable Aqueous Zn Metal Anodes

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 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 Zn 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/cm and 1300 h at 10 mAh/cm. The full cell paired with VO demonstrates a long lifespan for more than 600 cycles at a low negative/positive capacity ratio.