ABSTRACT Aqueous zinc‐ion batteries (ZIBs) persistently encounter interface issues stemming from the parasitic reactions and dendrite growth, drastically compromising reversibility and cyclability. Improving the kinetics of Zn 2+ desolvation, homogenizing Zn 2+ flux and constructing water‐poor interface layers with rich deposition sites remain grand challenges for ZIBs. Herein, a weak interactions strategy from trace amounts of N‐acetyl‐L‐leucine (NAL) with steric hindrance was proposed to regulate the Zn 2+ solvation structure and interface micro‐environment. The weak NAL‐Zn 2+ interaction prevents excessive binding of NAL to Zn 2+ , thereby facilitating the decoupling of NAL and Zn 2+ at the electrode/electrolyte interface and promoting the migration and deposition kinetics of Zn 2+ . Moreover, the strong interaction between NAL in the Zn 2+ secondary solvation sheath and water molecules in the first solvation sheath promotes the Zn(H 2 O) 6 2+ desolvation. Furthermore, NAL forms a dynamic anchoring layer on the Zn(002) crystal plane through weak adsorption, which does not compete with Zn 2+ for active sites and induces the uniform and ordered deposition of Zn 2+ on the Zn(002) crystal plane. As a result, the Zn||Zn symmetric cell achieves stable cycling for 4250 h at 1 mA cm −2 and 1 mAh cm −2 , and maintains stability for 220 h even at 85.4% depth of discharge.
Peng et al. (2026) studied this question.