“Zincophilic‑Hydrophobic”PAN/PMMA Nanofiber Membrane Toward High‑Rate Dendrite‑Free Zn Anode

Uncontrollable Zn dendrites and side reactions seriously downgrade the cycling stability of the Zn anode,and restrict the commercialization of aqueous zinc ion batteries.Here,PAN-based(PAN,PAN/PMMA)nanofiber membranes with uniform“zincophilic-hydrophobic”sites have been in-situ electrospun on Zn to effectively prevent harmful side reactions and control Zn plating/stripping behavior.The abundant highly-negative functional groups(C≡N and C=O)of PAN/PMMA have strong coordination interactions with Zn2+,which can accelerate Zn2+desolvation and increase the Zn2+migration number.Furthermore,the even distribution of zincophilic sites can help create a uniform Zn deposition environment and enable horizontal Zn deposition.Simultaneously,the inherent“hydrophobicity”of the nonpolar carbon skeleton in PAN/PMMA can prevent Zn corrosion and hydrogen evolution reaction(HER)side reactions,thus improving the cycling stability of the Zn anode.As a result,PAN/PMMA@Zn symmetric cells demonstrated remarkable rate performance and long cycling stability,sustaining efficient operation for over 2000 cycles at 10 mA cm^(−2)with a low polarization voltage below 65 mV.This Zn anode modification strategy by in-situ constructed PAN-based nanofiber membrane has the advantages of simple-preparation,one-step membrane construction,binder-free,uniform distribution of functionalized units,which not only provides a specific scheme for developing advanced Zn anode but also lays a certain research foundation for developing“separator-anode”integrated Zn-based batteries.