Rechargeable aqueous zinc ion batteries (ZIBs) represent a promising technology for large‐scale energy storage due to their high capacity, intrinsic safety and low cost. However, Zn anodes suffer from poor reversibility and cycling stability caused by the side‐reactions and dendrite issues, which limit the Zn utilization in the ZIBs. Herein, to improve the durability of Zn under high utilization, an aluminum‐doped zinc oxide (AZO) interphase is presented. The AZO interphase inhibits side reactions by isolating active Zn from the bulk electrolyte, and enables facile and uniform Zn deposition kinetics by accelerating the desolvation of hydrated Zn2+ and homogenizing the electric field distribution. Accordingly, the AZO‐coated Zn (AZO@Zn) anode exhibits a long lifespan of 600 h with Zn utilization of 34.1% at the current density of 10 mA cm−2. Notably, even under ultrahigh Zn utilization of 80%, the AZO@Zn remains stable cycling over 200 h. Meanwhile, the V2O5/AZO@Zn full cell with limited Zn excess displays high capacity retention of 86.8% over 500 cycles at 2 A g−1. This work provides a simple and efficient strategy to ensure the reversibility and durability of Zn anodes under high utilization conditions, holding a great promise for commercially available ZIBs with competitive energy density.

Two-dimensional (2D) oxides have unique electrical, optical, magnetic, and catalytic properties, which are promising for a wide range of applications in different fields. However, it is difficult to fabricate most oxides as 2D materials unless they have a layered structure. Here, we present a facile strategy for the synthesis of ultrathin oxide nanosheets using a self-formed sacrificial template of carbon layers by taking advantage of the Maillard reaction and violent redox reaction between glucose and ammonium nitrate. To date, 36 large-area ultrathin oxides (with thickness ranging from ~1.5 to ~4 nm) have been fabricated using this method, including rare-earth oxides, transition metal oxides, III-main group oxides, II-main group oxides, complex perovskite oxides, and high-entropy oxides. In particular, the as-obtained perovskite oxides exhibit great electrocatalytic activity for oxygen evolution reaction in an alkaline solution. This facile, universal, and scalable strategy provides opportunities to study the properties and applications of atomically thin oxide nanomaterials.

Electrochromic (EC) smart windows are considered one promising energy-conservation and emission-reduction device for green construction. However, conventional EC devices need external power to switch colors, which causes additional energy consumption. Herein, we propose a potential gradient strategy to attain a fast self-chargeable and -dischargeable EC system. In this strategy, the potential difference between Prussian blue (PB) and zinc (Zn) is established to reduce PB to Prussian white (PW) in 1.0 s, while etched carbon paper (ECP) could oxidize PW to its original state in 2.2 s. Moreover, this strategy is shown to be applicable for other highperformance EC systems, including Zn||WO 3 ||ECP, Zn|| PEDOT||ECP, Al||PB||ECP, and Zn||PB||ZnHCF. The potential application of large-scale windows is discussed in terms of a prototype 25 cm 2 EC window. Thus, the unique potential gradient strategy provides new insights for developing a fast self-switching EC device, which exhibits great application prospects in both energy conservation and energy storage.