Triangular Stabilized Ether–Water–Epoxy Hybrid Structural Membrane Architecture Enabling Dendrite Suppression and Antiswelling for Aqueous Zinc-Ion Structural Batteries

The growing global energy sector demands battery systems with enhanced stability and operational safety. Aqueous zinc-ion energy-storage-integrated batteries have emerged as potential candidates due to their high theoretical capacity and environmentally benign aqueous electrolytes. Despite continuous advances in battery-related technologies, current systems still face challenges in balancing mechanical robustness with energy density for structural energy-storage applications. To address these limitations, we developed a triangular stabilized ether–water–epoxy hybrid structural membrane system by incorporating a tetraglyme additive into zinc trifluoromethanesulfonate solution, which was infused into a porous epoxy resin membrane. This ether–water–epoxy hybrid structural membrane system effectively inhibits zinc dendrite formation while exploiting its antiswelling characteristics to preserve mechanical integrity (swelling ratio <2% after 48 h immersion and maintained a tensile strength of 6.8 MPa). The optimized battery demonstrated exceptional cycling stability (>880 h at 1.0 mA cm–2 and 1.0 mAh cm–2) while achieving 83.2% capacity retention over 400 cycles at 1 C. Furthermore, the structural energy device retained >80% capacity after 100 cycles under 0.5 C while withstanding bending stresses exceeding 400 MPa. Remarkably, the structural energy device achieved complete in situ full mechanical and electrochemical recyclability under 300 MPa bending stress, demonstrating a great potential for application in the field of both sustainable materials and structural energy-storage devices.