We are excited to share our latest work accepted in Nature Energy: "Aqueous Eutectic Electrolytes Suppress Oxygen and Hydrogen Evolution for Long-Life Zn||MnO₂ Dual-Electrode-Free Batteries." The paper was co-first authored by group members Jinghan Li and Chang Li.
In aqueous Zn-MnO₂ batteries operating via cathode electrodeposition/dissolution, achieving reversible cycling poses a fundamental challenge—traditional approaches rely on external acids to enable MnO₂ dissolution, but this causes severe anode corrosion and limits long-term performance. In this work, we demonstrate that eutectic electrolytes can suppress oxygen and hydrogen evolution while enabling highly reversible MnO₂ electrodeposition and dissolution chemistry. By tuning the solvation structure and hydrogen-bonding network through eutectic composition, we promote beneficial manganese oxide phase formation, achieving ultraextended cycling in this dual-electrode-free battery system.
We would like to thank our fantastic collaborators: Bo Liu and Prof. Yuzhang Li (UCLA) for their Cryo-EM contributions, and Dr. Oleg Borodin (DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory) for molecular dynamics simulations.
DOI: 10.1038/s41560-025-01958-8