Maltodextrin as a Commercial‐Grade Electrolyte Additive Against Dendrite Formation and Side Reactions for Aqueous Zinc‐Ion Batteries

Aqueous zinc‐ion batteries (AZIBs) directly using zinc metal anodes are promising candidates for grid‐scale energy storage systems due to their intrinsic high theoretical capacity, high safety, and environmental friendliness. However, the uncontrolled dendrite growth and water‐triggered side reactions seriously plague its practical application. Herein, a cost‐effective and green additive, maltodextrin (MD) is presented, to simultaneously guide the smooth Zn deposition and inhibit the occurrence of water‐related side reactions. Combing experimental characterizations and theoretical calculations shows that the MD molecules could reconstruct the Helmholtz plane, induces a preferential growth of zinc along the (002) plane, and the optimized regulation of the Zn2+ diffusion path and deposition location also results in the formation of fine‐grained Zn deposition layers, thereby inhibiting dendrite growth. In addition, MD molecules readily adsorb to the zinc anode surface, which isolates water molecules from direct contact with the zinc metal, reducing hydrogen precipitation reactions and inhibiting the formation of by‐products. Consequently, the Zn||Zn symmetric cell with MD achieves ultra‐long stable cycles of up to 5430 h at 1 mA cm−2 and 1 mA h cm−2, and the Cu||Zn asymmetric cell can stable cycle 1000 cycles with an average coulomb efficiency of 99.78%. This work presents a commercial‐grade electrolyte additive to improve the stability of zinc metal anodes. Combing experimental characterizations and theoretical calculation shows that the strong Zn affinity of the maltodextrin molecules isolates water from direct contact with the anodes, reducing hydrogen precipitation reactions, reconstructs the Helmholtz plane, induces a preferential growth of zinc along the (002) plane.