Front cover image: In article number e70116, the cover illustrates a vertically aligned hydrogel electrolyte designed to enhance the stability and cycle life of aqueous zinc-ion batteries. Featuring uniformly distributed pores with identical dimensions, this vertically aligned hydrogel electrolyte enables rapid zinc-ion migration and uniform zinc deposition. In addition, the hydrogel electrolyte possesses a large number of hydrophilic functional groups that act as “grippers” to restrict the movement of water molecules and mitigate the side reactions induced by water molecules. This hydrogel strategy involves a simple and reproducible preparation process, while simultaneously improving the electrochemical performance of aqueous zinc-ion batteries, thus providing a new insight into the structural design of hydrogel electrolytes.
Zhou et al. (Sun,) studied this question.