Aqueous Zn metal batteries are promising for grid-scale energy storage, owing to intrinsic safety, environmental friendliness, and low cost. However, their practical deployment is hindered by their poor and overlooked calendar life. Here, we quantitatively demonstrate that the Zn corrosion rate during calendar aging is jointly governed by the hydrogen evolution barrier and Zn deposition homogeneity. Therefore, we propose a universal anti-corrosion interfacial design that simultaneously elevates the hydrogen evolution energy barrier and promotes uniform Zn deposition through early stage dispersed nucleation. This anti-corrosion interface effectively suppresses the Zn corrosion rate by 68.9% compared with the untreated interface, leading to a Zn powder pouch cell with 80.6% capacity retention at high reversible capacity of 245.4 mAh g-1 over 200 cycles, achieved under a rigorous calendar aging process. This study establishes quantified correlations between interfacial properties and Zn corrosion, offering fundamental guidance for future interfacial designs to boost the calendar life and commercial-level applications of aqueous Zn batteries.
Fei et al. (2026) studied this question.