Concrete Soft‐Gel Electrodes with a Unified Instability Criterion for Sustainable Aqueous Batteries
Electrochemical energy storage has long been constrained by the structural instability of solid electrodes and the costly design of liquid-based systems. Here, we report a transformative concrete soft-gel electrode that reconciles mechanical robustness with interfacial fluidity, enabling improved stability in aqueous full batteries. Critically, we uncover the fundamental origin of electrode detachment and propose the Ji-Ran instability criterion, which unifies osmotic pressure, electrokinetic shear, and elastic-adhesive balance into a single quantitative framework. Inspired by structural concrete, the incorporation of BaTiO<sub>3</sub> particles reinforces the soft-gel network, raising elastic modulus, adhesion energy, and interfacial integrity. The resulting full batteries deliver high Coulombic efficiency, mitigated capacity decay, and facile recyclability via water-assisted disassembly. This work establishes a generalizable paradigm for concrete soft-gel electrodes and opens a pathway to sustainable, long-lasting aqueous batteries.
Authors
- Haoning Xi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7499-8799)
- Qinhan Yang
- Pei Kong
- Kun Zhuang
- Jilei Ye
- Shengtao Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-1757-1357)
- Kaiqiang Zhang
- Yuping Wu
Institutions
- Nanjing Tech University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- ChemSusChem
- Published
- 2026-02-23
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/cssc.202502586
- Primary Topic
- Advanced battery technologies research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00