Mechano-electrochemically stable fibrous zinc-ion batteries with unified aramid nanofibres skeleton.

Abstract

Hydrogel electrolyte-based fibrous zinc-ion batteries exhibit exceptional safety and flexibility, positioning them as promising candidates for wearable electronics. However, conventional hydrogel electrolyte-based fibrous batteries suffer from substantial interfacial mechanical mismatches between rigid electrodes and soft hydrogel electrolytes, leading to compromised mechano-electrochemical stability and inferior electrochemical performance under deformation. To address this critical issue, we simultaneously introduce aramid nanofibres into both electrodes and electrolyte via wet spinning, serving as a cognate skeleton to bridge the mechanical mismatch in hydrogel electrolyte-based fibrous zinc-ion batteries. This design enables highly concerted mechanical modulus across electrodes and electrolyte, effectively mitigating stress concentration-induced interfacial degradation during deformation. Furthermore, aramid nanofibres synergistically modulate anion migration kinetics and crystalline structure of hydrogel electrolytes, addressing intrinsic challenges in sluggish ion transport, parasitic byproduct formation, and uncontrolled zinc dendrite growth of deformed fibrous batteries. The resulting fibrous batteries exhibit robust mechano-electrochemical stability, sustaining stable operation over 100,000 deformation cycles (1% strain, 0.01% s^-1) and maintaining high-capacity retention (90.3% ± 1.3%) in subsequent charge-discharge cycling. The potential application in textiles is further exemplified after weaving the fibrous batteries into an energy storage textile, offering a significant potential for durable, deformation-resistant flexible wearable electronics.