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Despite the high safety and low cost associated with aqueous Zn-ion batteries (ZIBs), uncontrolled Zn dendrite growth and parasitic reactions induced by water significantly diminish their stability. Herein, a new epoxy functionalized ionic liquid, 4-methyl-4-glycidylmorpholin bis[(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl]imide (MGM[TFSI]), has been developed to mitigate water reactivity for stable ZIBs. It was found that the MGM + cation disrupts the hydrogen bond network of water, hindering its adsorption on Zn anodes, thereby suppressing water decomposition and enhancing anode stability. Additionally, preferential adsorption of MGM + cations on the Zn anode surface mitigates tip effects, suppresses dendrite growth, and promotes the formation of a ZnF 2 solid electrolyte interphase layer, effectively isolating the anode from the bulk electrolyte. As a result, benefiting from the well-designed MGM + -based electrolyte, Zn//Zn cells achieve significantly enhanced cycling stability, lasting over 2000 h at 1 mA cm -2 with 1 mAh cm -2 . Furthermore, Zn//MnO 2 full cells deliver remarkable stability, retaining approximately 89 % of their initial capacity after 3000 cycles at 5 A/g. This work proposes that the MGM[TFSI] additive can effectively regulate the interfacial chemistry of the Zn anode, providing an opportunity to design advanced electrolytes for highly reversible ZIBs and beyond., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The Zn anode of aqueous zinc ion batteries (AZIBs) have suffered from a series of rampant side reactions such as dendrite growth and corrosion, which seriously affect the reversibility and stability of Zn anodes. Herein, a polycarbonyl polymer poly(1,4,5,8-naphthalene tetracarboxylic anhydride anthraquinone) imine (PNAQI) as the protective coating is synthesized through a simple solvothermal method with the raw materials of the equimolar 1,4,5,8-naphthalenetetracarboxylic dianhydride (NTCDA) and 2, 6-aminoanthraquinone (2,6-DAAQ). A series of characterizations such as contact angle measurement and ex-situ XRD analysis confirm that it can effectively prevent some side reactions. Moreover, CO on PNAQI can regulate the uniform distribution of zinc, thereby preventing the occurrence of zinc dendrites. Finally, the PNAQI@Zn//PNAQI@Zn symmetrical cell demonstrates a long cycle life exceeding 1000 h at current density of 1.0 mA cm -2 and a capacity of 1.0 mAh cm -2 . The result significantly outperforms the cycling performance of the cell with bare zinc anode. Especially, the full battery of PNAQI@Zn//NH 4 V 4 O 10 demonstrates an excellent capacity retention and prolonged cycle life (96.9 mAh/g after 1000 cycles at 1.0 A/g) compared to Zn//NH 4 V 4 O 10 . This work provides an effective, simple and low-cost solution for developing high-performance AZIBs., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The practical application of lithium metal batteries is considered to be one of the most promising successors for lithium-ion batteries due to their ability to meet the high-energy storage demands of modern society. However, their application is still hindered by the unstable solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) and uncontrollable dendrite growth. In this study, we propose a robust composite SEI (C-SEI) that consists of a fluorine doped boron nitride (F-BN) inner layer and an organic polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) outer layer. Both theoretical calculations and experimental results demonstrate that the F-BN inner layer induces the formation of favourable components (LiF and Li 3 N) at the interface, promoting rapid ionic transport and inhibiting electrolyte decomposition. The PVA outer layer acts as a flexible buffer in the C-SEI, ensuring the structural integrity of the inorganic inner layer during lithium plating and stripping. The C-SEI modified lithium anode shows a dendrite-free performance and stable cycle over 1200 h, with an ultralow overpotential (15 mV) at 1 mA cm -2 in this study. This novel approach also enhances the stability of capacity retention rate by 62.3% after 100 cycles even in anode-free full cells (C-SEI@Cu||LFP). Our findings suggest a feasible strategy for addressing the instability inherent in SEI, showing great prospects for the practical application of lithium metal batteries., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)