ABSTRACT Aqueous zinc‐ion batteries (AZIBs) are promising alternatives to lithium‐based systems but are limited by dendritic growth and parasitic reactions at the Zn anode. Here, we introduce a bifunctional physicochemical descriptor ( Φ ) that evaluates hydrogen‐bond network strength in the electrolyte and interfacial adsorption strength at the electrolyte/electrode interface, capturing the respective tendencies of parasitic reaction and dendritic formation. This descriptor enables mechanism‐informed screening of amino acid additives and identifies l ‐tyrosine as an effective regulator. Multiscale characterizations show that trace l ‐tyrosine (1 mM) suppresses hydrogen evolution by restructuring the hydrogen‐bond network and promotes Zn(002)‐oriented deposition via interfacial adsorption. As a result, Zn||Zn symmetric cells exhibit prolonged stability, exceeding 4500 h at 1 mA cm −2 and over 12 000 cycles at 10 mA cm −2 , while MnO 2 ||Zn full cells retain 95.66% capacity after 500 cycles at 1 A g −1 . This work establishes a descriptor‐based framework for regulating dendrite growth and parasitic reactions and provides a rational strategy for electrolyte additive design in aqueous metal batteries.
Jin et al. (Wed,) studied this question.