An asymmetric electrolyte to simultaneously meet contradictory requirements of anode and cathode

One of the major obstacles hindering the application of zinc metal batteries is the contradictory demands from the Zn metal anode and cathodes. At the anode side, water induces serious corrosion and dendrite growth, remarkably suppressing the reversibility of Zn plating/stripping. At the cathode side, water is essential because many cathode materials require both H⁺ and Zn²⁺ insertion/extraction to achieve a high capacity and long lifespan. Herein, an asymmetric design of inorganic solid-state electrolyte combined with hydrogel electrolyte is presented to simultaneously meet the as-mentioned contrary requirements. The inorganic solid-state electrolyte is toward the Zn anode to realize a dendrite-free and corrosion-free highly reversible Zn plating/stripping, and the hydrogel electrolyte enables consequent H⁺ and Zn²⁺ insertion/extraction at the cathode side for high performance. Therefore, there is no hydrogen and dendrite growth detected in cells with a super high-areal-capacity up to 10 mAh·cm⁻² (Zn//Zn), ~5.5 mAh·cm⁻² (Zn//MnO₂) and ~7.2 mAh·cm⁻² (Zn//V₂O₅). These Zn//MnO₂ and Zn//V₂O₅ batteries show remarkable cycling stability over 1000 cycles with 92.4% and over 400 cycles with 90.5% initial capacity retained, respectively.