When It's Heavier: Interfacial and Solvation Chemistry of Isotopes in Aqueous Electrolytes for Zn-ion Batteries

The electrochemical effect of isotope (EEI) of water is introduced in the Zn-ion batteries (ZIBs) electrolyte to deal with the challenge of severe side reactions and massive gas production. Due to the low diffusion and strong coordination of ions in D₂O, the possibility of side reactions is decreased, resulting in a broader electrochemically stable potential window, less pH change, and less zinc hydroxide sulfate (ZHS) generation during cycling. Moreover, we demonstrate that D₂O eliminates the different ZHS phases generated by the change of bound water during cycling because of the consistently low local ion and molecule concentration, resulting in a stable interface between the electrode and electrolyte. The full cells with D₂O-based electrolyte demonstrated more stable cycling performance which displayed ∼100 % reversible efficiencies after 1,000 cycles with a wide voltage window of 0.8–2.0 V and 3,000 cycles with a normal voltage window of 0.8–1.9 V at a current density of 2 A g⁻¹.