Sustainable and ubiquitous organic quinone cathodes contribute to high-capacity and safe rechargeable zinc batteries.

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Filled to capacity: Calix[4]quinone (C4Q) has eight available carbonyl groups for binding lithium ions (see picture). It can be exploited to prepare quasi‐solid‐state rechargeable lithium batteries with a poly(methyl acrylate)/poly(ethylene glycol) based gel polymer electrolyte and a LiClO4/DMSO loading. It shows an initial discharge capacity of 422 mA h g−1 and a capacity retention of 379 mA h g−1 after 100 cycles.

The detrimental hydrogen evolution side reaction is one of the major issues hindering the commercialization of Zn metal anode in high-safety and lowcost rechargeable aqueous batteries. Herein, the authors present a Sn alloying approach to effectively inhibit the hydrogen evolution and dendrite growth of the Zn metal anode. Through in situ monitoring of the hydrogen production during repeated plating/stripping tests, it is quantitatively demonstrated that the hydrogen evolution of alloy electrode with appropriate Sn amount is only half of that of pure Zn electrode. Furthermore, the Sn alloying allows for favorable Zn nucleation sites, lowering the Zn nucleation energy barrier and promoting more uniform Zn deposition. The Zn-Sn alloy electrode offers muchimproved plating/stripping cycling, that is, over 240 h at 5 mA cm −2 and 35.2% depth of discharge. This work provides a practically viable strategy to stabilize Zn metal electrode in rechargeable aqueous batteries.

Conformational changes in diethylene glycol dimethyl ether (diglyme) and high molecular weight poly(ethy1ene oxide) induced by complexation with lithium trifluoromethanesulfonate (LiCFSS03) have been investigated using Raman scattering and infrared transmission spectroscopy. In both the diglyme and polymer complex new bands were observed in spectral regions involving a significant amount of CH2 bending motion. These bands are attributed to a conformation which is not energetically favored in the pure polymer or oligomer but which is stabilized through interactions of the cation with the polyether oxygen atoms. The structure of the new conformer is discussed.

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