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Liwei Qian, Xinyu Ma, Wenqi Song, Xiaowen Yin, Cong Li, Yingcai Wang, Sufeng Zhang, Bin Lu, Valentin Nica. Achieving Structural-Functional Synergy in Biomass Hydrogel Electrolytes for Dendrite-Free Flexible Zinc-Ion Batteries. Green Energy&Environment. doi: 10.1016/j.gee.2026.05.025
Citation: Liwei Qian, Xinyu Ma, Wenqi Song, Xiaowen Yin, Cong Li, Yingcai Wang, Sufeng Zhang, Bin Lu, Valentin Nica. Achieving Structural-Functional Synergy in Biomass Hydrogel Electrolytes for Dendrite-Free Flexible Zinc-Ion Batteries. Green Energy&Environment. doi: 10.1016/j.gee.2026.05.025
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Achieving Structural-Functional Synergy in Biomass Hydrogel Electrolytes for Dendrite-Free Flexible Zinc-Ion Batteries

doi: 10.1016/j.gee.2026.05.025

  • a. College of Bioresources Chemical and Materials Engineering, Shaanxi University of Science & Technology, Shaanxi, Xi'an 710021, China;

  • b. Technological Institute of Materials & Energy Science (TIMES), Xi'an Key Laboratory of Advanced Photo-Electronics Materials and Energy Conversion Device, School of Electronic Information, Xijing University, Xi'an 710123, China;

  • c. Zhejiang Jingxing Paper Joint Stock Co., Ltd., Zhejiang, Pinghu 314214, China;

  • d. Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Salamanca, Plaza Los Caídos s/n, 37008, Salamanca, Spain

Funds:

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 22323083), the Scientific Research Foundation of Youth Innovation Team of Education Department of Shaanxi Provincial Government (24JP198) and the Key Projects of Shaanxi Provincial Foreign Expert Service Program (Grant No. 2023WGZJ-ZD-11).

  • Received date 19 March 2026, Accepted date 26 May 2026, RevRecd date 09 May 2026, Available online 02 June 2026
    Abstract
  • The proliferation of flexible electronics demands energy storage devices that are inherently safe, mechanically compliant, and environmentally sustainable. Quasi-solid-state electrolytes are critical for flexible aqueous zinc-ion batteries, yet existing systems rarely integrate biomass sustainability with the requisite electrochemical stability and mechanical resilience. Here, we propose a structural-functional integration strategy to fabricate a fully biomass-based cellulose/hyaluronic acid composite hydrogel electrolyte via a green, one-step dissolution-regeneration process. In this design, hyaluronic acid serves as a multifunctional component: from a structural perspective, its flexible chains disrupt cellulose crystallinity to enhance mechanical compliance; from a functional perspective, its abundant polar groups (–COOH, –CONH–) coordinate Zn2+ to regulate ion transport and nucleation while confining water molecules to suppress interfacial side reactions. This structural-functional synergy endows the optimized hydrogel with high ionic conductivity (29.5 mS·cm-1), excellent mechanical toughness (91 kJ·m-3), and superior interfacial stability. Consequently, ZnZn symmetric cells exhibit stable plating/stripping for over 8,000 h, while ZnV2O5 full cells retain 79.6% capacity after 10,000 cycles at 1 A·g-1. Furthermore, flexible batteries maintain stable operation under mechanical deformation with capacity retention exceeding 92%. This work establishes the structural-functional integration principle as a generalizable design paradigm for high-performance, sustainable flexible zinc-ion batteries.

     

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