Weakly Coordinated Solvent Network‐Induced Ternary Water‐Deficient Eutectic Electrolytes for Low‐Polarization Zn Anodes
Eutectic electrolytes are attractive for zinc-based energy storage owing to their green chemistry attributes and intrinsic stability; however, their practical deployment is limited by severe polarization stemming from sluggish ion transport and strong solvation. Here, we propose a ternary water-deficient eutectic electrolyte without water solvent whose polarization approaches that of aqueous systems by engineering a weakly coordinated solvent network via solvation-structure restructuring. A strongly coordinated solvent network enables salt dissolution, whereas the introduction of a weakly coordinating co-solvent disrupts the constrained coordination environment and drives a transition to a dynamic, weakly coordinated solvation structure. This restructuring enhances anion participation while suppressing ion bridging, yielding abundant yet size-confined aggregates, thereby accelerating ion-transport kinetics and lowering desolvation barriers. Furthermore, the formation of a robust solid-electrolyte interphase effectively stabilizes the Zn anode. As a result, the ternary water-deficient electrolyte enables highly reversible Zn plating/stripping with low polarization under ambient conditions, while also delivering excellent low-temperature performance. Enhanced kinetics in Zn||PANI cells and consistent performance across both coin cells and printed energy devices highlight the strong potential of this water-deficient eutectic electrolyte for scalable zinc-ion energy storage.
Authors
- Vellaisamy A. L. Roy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1432-9950)
- Hehe Ren
- Wei Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7672-7965)
- Quancai Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8545-8384)
- Jiayu Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2509-4579)
- Ziyi Gong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-2232-8389)
- Jing Liang
- Qian Wang
Institutions
- Wuhan University (CN)
- Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University (CN)
- Metropolitan University (BD)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Advanced Science
- Published
- 2026-09-06
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.77566
- Primary Topic
- Advanced battery technologies research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00