Inorganic-polymer hydrogel electrolyte enabling aqueous Zn-ions batteries

[Display omitted] •Novel composite gel polymer electrolytes was prepared by a simple one-pot process.•Graphene oxide was introduced to improve the mechanical and electrochemical performance of GPE.•The GPE was endowed with high ionic conductivity and perfect mechanical strength. Zinc-ion batteries with gel polymer electrolytes (GPE) have attracted great attention owing to their characters of safe, high performance, and environmental friendly. However, their practical application is limited by low ion conductivity and poor mechanical strength. In this work, a perfect composite GPE were obtained by introducing graphene oxide into SA and PAAM double-networks. The GPE was endowed with a perfect ionic conductivity of 12.12 mS cm−1. After 500 charge/discharge cycles at a rate of 1 C, the Zn-SAG-LiFePO4 battery showed a discharge specific capacity retention of 63.3 % and a Coulomb efficiency about 100 %. The hydrogel electrolyte is considered to enable the practical applications of Zinc-ion batteries.