Abstract

Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) hold significant promise across wearable energy storage devices due to their superior safety and cost-effectiveness. However, the instability of the electrode/electrolyte interface leads to severe hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and dendritic growth. Herein, a bio-inspired additive, keratin (Ker), is introduced to construct a robust interfacial layer. The hydrogen bonding donors homogenize the distribution of interfacial hydrogen bond networks and increases the electron density in Zn2+-OH interaction, stabilizing bound H2O molecules and effectively inhibiting HER. Additionally, electron transfer from the highly reactive thiol (-SH) motivates the formation of Zn-S chemical linkage, enhancing interface stability. These features endow Zn||Zn symmetric cells with an impressive cycle life, reaching up to 3364 h at 1 mA cm−2/1 mAh cm−2. The Zn||α-MnO2 and Zn||VO2 full cells also exhibit a substantial capacity retention after 1000 cycles. Incorporating multi-step laser cutting technology enables the fabrication of flexible, large-area micro-batteries with prolonged cycle life. This study presents an advanced methodology for heralding a promising pathway to improve the reversibility of aqueous energy storage systems.

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