Paper Publication

2026/4/28 We published an article in Energy Storage Materials on the topic of molecularly crowded electrolytes. This work is funded by NSF (Award #2532756).

A key challenge in aqueous zinc batteries is the high reactivity of water, which limits voltage and long-term stability. Instead of relying solely on high salt concentration, we explore molecular crowding as a strategy to regulate the electrolyte environment. We show that molecular crowding can disrupt the hydrogen-bond network of water while largely preserving the Zn2+ solvation structure. (The molecular crowding agent does not get into the first Zn2+ coordination shell)