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Abstract In the pursuit of high‐performance energy storage systems, four‐electron zinc–iodine aqueous batteries (4eZIBs) with successive I − /I 2 /I + redox couples are appealing for their potential to deliver high energy density and resource abundance. However, susceptibility of positive valence I + to hydrolysis and instability of Zn plating/stripping in conventional aqueous electrolyte pose significant challenges. In response, polyethylene glycol (PEG 200) is introduced as co‐solvent in 2 m ZnCl 2 aqueous solution to design a wide temperature electrolyte. Through a comprehensive investigation combining spectroscopic characterizations and theoretical simulations, it is elucidated that PEG disrupts the intrinsic strong H‐bonds of water by global weak PEG–H 2 O interaction, which strengthens the O─H covalent bond of water and intensifies the coordination with Zn 2+ . This synergistic effect substantially reduces water activity to restrain the I + hydrolysis, facilitating I − /I 2 /I + redox kinetics, mitigating I 3 − formation and smoothening Zn deposition. The 4eZIBs in the optimized hybrid electrolyte not only deliver superior cyclability with a low fading rate of 0.0009% per cycle over 20 000 cycles and a close‐to‐unit coulombic efficiency but also exhibit stable performance in a wide temperature range from 40 °C to −40 °C. This study offers valuable insights into the rational design of electrolytes for 4eZIBs.
Liu et al. (Tue,) studied this question.