Aqueous Zn anodes have been revisited for their intrinsic safety, low cost, and high volumetric capacity; however, deep-seated issues of dendrite growth and intricate side-reactions hindered their rejuvenation. Herein, a “brightener-inspired” polyamide coating layer which elevates the nucleation barrier and restricts Zn²⁺ 2D diffusion is constructed to effectively regulate the aqueous Zn deposition behavior. Importantly, serving as a buffer layer that isolates active Zn from bulk electrolytes, this interphase also suppresses free water/O₂-induced corrosion and passivation. With this synergy effect, the polymer-modified Zn anode produces reversible, dendrite-free plating/stripping with a 60-fold enhancement in running lifetime (over 8000 hours) compared to the bare Zn, and even at an ultrahigh areal capacity of 10 mA h cm⁻² (10 mA cm⁻² for 1 h, 85% depth of discharge). This efficient rechargeability for Zn anodes enables a substantially stable full-cell paired with a MnO₂ cathode. The strategy presented here is straightforward and scalable, representing a stark, but promising approach to solve the anode issues in advanced Zn batteries.

The surface chemistry of solid electrolyte interphase is one of the critical factors that govern the cycling life of rechargeable batteries. However, this chemistry is less explored for zinc anodes, owing to their relatively high redox potential and limited choices in electrolyte. Here, we report the observation of a zinc fluoride-rich organic/inorganic hybrid solid electrolyte interphase on zinc anode, based on an acetamide-Zn(TFSI)₂ eutectic electrolyte. A combination of experimental and modeling investigations reveals that the presence of anion-complexing zinc species with markedly lowered decomposition energies contributes to the in situ formation of an interphase. The as-protected anode enables reversible (~100% Coulombic efficiency) and dendrite-free zinc plating/stripping even at high areal capacities (>2.5 mAh cm^‒2), endowed by the fast ion migration coupled with high mechanical strength of the protective interphase. With this interphasial design the assembled zinc batteries exhibit excellent cycling stability with negligible capacity loss at both low and high rates.

In this work, nitrogen-doped graphene nanosheets serving as lithium storage materials are presented. The nitrogen-doped graphene nanosheets were prepared by heat treatment of graphite oxide under an ammonia atmosphere at 800 °C for 2 h. Scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were employed to characterize the prepared product as nitrogen-doped graphene nanosheets with a doping level of ca. 2% nitrogen, where the N binding configuration of the graphene includes 57.4% pyridinic, 35.0% pyrrolic and 7.6% graphitic N atoms. Galvanostatic charge/discharge experiments revealed that these nitrogen-doped graphene nanosheets exhibited a high reversible capacity (900 mA h g⁻¹ at 42 mA g⁻¹ (1/20 C)), excellent rate performance (250 mA h g⁻¹ at a current density of 2.1 A g⁻¹ (2.5 C)), and significantly enhanced cycling stability, which demonstrated nitrogen-doped graphene nanosheets to be a promising candidate for anode materials in high rate lithium-ion batteries.

By breaking through the energy density limits step-by-step, the use of lithium cobalt oxide-based Li-ion batteries (LCO-based LIBs) has led to the unprecedented success of consumer electronics over the past 27 years. Recently, strong demands for the quick renewal of the properties of electronic products every so often have resulted in smarter, larger screened, more lightweight devices with longer standby times that have pushed the energy density of LCO-based LIBs nearly to their limit. As a result, with the aim of achieving a higher energy density and lifting the upper cut-off voltage of LCO above 4.45 V (vs. Li/Li⁺), the development of LCO-based all-solid-state lithium batteries (ASSLBs) with a Li metal anode and LCO-based full cells with high-performance anodes have become urgent scientific and technological requirements. This review summarizes the key challenges of synthesizing LCO-based LBs with a higher energy density from the perspectives of structure and interface stability, and gives an account of effective modification strategies in view of the electrodes, liquid electrolytes, binders, separators, solid electrolytes and LCO-based full cells. The improvement mechanisms of these modification strategies and the controversy over them are also analyzed critically. Moreover, some perspectives regarding the remaining challenges for LCO-based LBs towards a higher energy density and possible future research focuses are also presented.