Stabilizing zinc anodes for dual-membrane Zn-Ce redox flow battery via constructing zincophilic protective layer

• A zincophilic and rich active sites zinc electrodes for dual-membrane Zn-Ce redox flow battery was synthesized. • The modified electrode exhibits remarkable electrochemical performance for dual-membrane Zn-Ce redox flow battery . • The life of Zn-Ce redox flow battery has been significantly improved. The development of large-scale grid storage systems has increased interest in redox flow batteries due to their flexible design characteristics, which can help overcome the intermittency of renewable energy. Zn-Ce redox flow battery is considered as one of the most promising redox flow batteries due to its high voltage and low cost. However, using Zn metal anodes in this context remains problematic due to issues with corrosion and dendrite growth, as well as electrolyte incompatibility, which limits their cycling performance and practical application. Herein, an indium-based protective layer is constructed on the Zn anode cooperating with a dual-membrane cell configuration to solve these problems. Due to its unique physical and chemical properties, the zincophilic indium protective layer can effectively prevent electrolyte corrosion as well as regulate the behavior of Zn plating and stripping. Moreover, a dual-membrane cell configuration is used to mitigate electrolyte incompatibility since it uses specified ions as charge carriers and blocks the infamous H + poisoning on the zinc side. The cell exhibits a high discharge voltage plateau of 2.2 V at 20 mA cm −2 and maintains a high average energy efficiency of 84.39 % over 80 cycles. This work presents a practical method to enhance the cycling performance of the Zn-Ce battery by incorporating an In-based protective layer with a dual-membrane cell configuration, resulting in unparalleled efficiency and stability.