J. Cao, D.D. Zhang, C. Gu, X. Wang, S.M. Wang, X.Y. Zhang*, J.Q. Qin*, Z.-S. Wu*

Advanced Energy Materials, 2021, 11, 2101299.

DOI: 10.1002/aenm.202101299 [PDF]

The dendrite issue of zinc anodeleading tosafety hazardsand sluggish reaction kineticsare recognized as the major stumbling bottleneck preventing further development of aqueous zinc ion batteries (ZIBs). Herein,a sustainable separator composited by cellulose nanofibers and graphene oxide (CG separator) is developed for dendrite-free and exceptionally stable ZIBs, realized by uniform hexagonal zinc deposits with manipulated crystallographic orientation (002) plane in Zn anode due to the perfect lattice match between graphene oxide and zinc.Furthermore,CG separator caneffectively accelerate electrons transfer, promote the uniform nucleation of Zn²⁺, andmitigatehydrogen evolution reactionand anode corrosion. As a result, extremely lowpolarization of 58 mV at 0.5 mA cm^-2, andultralong cycle life over 1750 h at 2 mA cm^-2and 400 h at 20 mA cm^-2are achieved for zinc anode. Notably, CG separator significantly boosts remarkable rate capability and cyclability of coin-type full batteries includingZn||Zn(CF₃SO₃)₂||V₂O₅and Zn||ZnSO₄+MnSO₄||MnO₂/graphite batteries, together witha flexible soft-packaged Zn||MnO₂battery. Therefore, this workpaves a sustainability consideration in the design of separator for constructing dendrite-freeZIBs.