Aqueous zinc‐ion batteries hold attractive potential for large‐scale energy storage devices owing to their prominent electrochemical performance and high security. Nevertheless, the applications of aqueous electrolytes have generated various challenges, including uncontrolled dendrite growth and parasitic reactions, thereby deteriorating the Zn anode's stability. Herein, inspired by the superior affinity between Zn2+ and amino acid chains in the zinc finger protein, a cost‐effective and green glycine additive is incorporated into aqueous electrolytes to stabilize the Zn anode. As confirmed by experimental characterizations and theoretical calculations, the glycine additives can not only reorganize the solvation sheaths of hydrated Zn2+ via partial substitution of coordinated H2O but also preferentially adsorb onto the Zn anode, thereby significantly restraining dendrite growth and interfacial side reactions. Accordingly, the Zn anode could realize a long lifespan of over 2000 h and enhanced reversibility (98.8%) in the glycine‐containing electrolyte. Furthermore, the assembled Zn||α‐MnO2 full cells with glycine‐modified electrolyte also delivers substantial capacity retention (82.3% after 1000 cycles at 2 A g‐1), showing promising application prospects. This innovative bio‐inspired design concept would inject new vitality into the development of aqueous electrolytes.

Aqueous zinc–ion batteries typically suffer from sluggish interfacial reaction kinetics and drastic cathode dissolution owing to the desolvation process of hydrated Zn2+ and continual adsorption/desorption behavior of water molecules, respectively. To address these obstacles, a bio‐inspired approach, which exploits the moderate metabolic energy of cell systems and the amphiphilic nature of plasma membranes, is employed to construct a bio‐inspired hydrophobic conductive poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene) film decorating α‐MnO2 cathode. Like plasma membranes, the bio‐inspired film can “selectively” boost Zn2+ migration with a lower energy barrier and maintain the integrity of the entire cathode. Electrochemical reaction kinetics analysis and theoretical calculations reveal that the bio‐inspired film can significantly improve the electrical conductivity of the electrode, endow the cathode–electrolyte interface with engineered hydrophobicity, and enhance the desolvation behavior of hydrated Zn2+. This results in an enhanced ion diffusion rate and minimized cathode dissolution, thereby boosting the overall interfacial reaction kinetics and cathode stability. Owing to these intriguing merits, the composite cathode can demonstrate remarkable cycling stability and rate performance in comparison with the pristine MnO2 cathode. Based on the bio‐inspired design philosophy, this work can provide a novel insight for future research on promoting the interfacial reaction kinetics and electrode stability for various battery systems.

Herein, inspired by natural sunflower heads’ properties increasing the temperature of dish‐shaped flowers by tracking the sun, a novel hybrid heterostructure (MoS2/Ni3S2@CA, CA means carbon nanowire arrays) with the sunflower‐like structure to boost the kinetics of water splitting is proposed. Density functional theory (DFT) reveals that it can modulate the active electronic states of NiMo atoms around the Fermi‐level through the charge transfer between the metallic atoms of Ni3S2 and MoMo bonds of MoS2 to boost overall water splitting. Most importantly, the finite difference time domain (FDTD) could find that its unique bio‐inspired micro‐nano light‐trapping structure has high solar photothermal conversion efficiency. With the assistance of the photothermal field, the kinetics of water‐splitting is improved, affording low overpotentials of 96 and 229 mV at 10 mA cm−2 for HER and OER, respectively. Moreover, the Sun‐MoS2/Ni3S2@CA enables the overall alkaline water splitting at a low cell voltage of 1.48 and 1.64 V to achieve 10 and 100 mA cm−2 with outstanding catalytic durability. This study may open up a new route for rationally constructing bionic sunflower micro‐nano light‐trapping structure to maximize their photothermal conversion and electrochemical performances, and accelerate the development of nonprecious electrocatalysts for overall water splitting.

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As a result of the absence of solid-state diffusion limitation, intercalation pseudocapacitance behavior is emerging as an attractive charge-storage mechanism that can greatly facilitate the ion kinetics to boost the rate capability and cycle stability of batteries; however, related research in the field of zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) is still in the initial stage and only found in limited cathode materials. In this study, a novel V 2 O 5−x @rGO hybrid aerogel consisting of ultrathin V 2 O 5 nanosheets (∼1.26 nm) with abundant oxygen vacancies (Vo) and a three-dimensional (3D) graphene conductive network was specifically designed and used as a freestanding and binder-free electrode for ZIBs. As expected, the ideal microstructure of both the material and the electrode enable fast electron/ion diffusion kinetics of the electrode, which realize a typical intercalation pseudocapacitance behavior as demonstrated by the simulation calculation of cyclic voltammetry (CV), ex situ X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and first-principles density functional theory (DFT) calculation. Thanks to the elimination of solid-state diffusion limitation, the V 2 O 5−x @rGO electrode delivers a high reversible rate capacity of 153.9 mAh g −1 at 15 A g −1 and 90.6% initial capacity retention at 0.5 A g −1 after 1050 cycles in ZIBs. The intercalation pseudocapacitance behavior is also realized in the assembled soft-pack battery, showing promising practical application prospects.