Bioinspired Self-Assembly-Reinforced Ion Transport and Interface Regulation Enables Sustainable Metal-Ion Batteries for Wearable Electronics

TL;DR

This paper introduces a bioinspired battery design using self-assembled structures to improve ion transport and stability, enabling safe and durable batteries for wearable electronics.

Contribution

A bionic self-assembly strategy using a lipopeptide additive to enhance ion transport and interfacial stability in flexible batteries.

Findings

Reinforced asymmetric cells show 99.66% coulombic efficiency over 2400 cycles.

Full cells retain 86% of initial capacity after 1000 cycles.

Scorpion tail-inspired design provides stable energy output under mechanical stress.

Abstract

Bionic self-assembly strategy forms bulk supramolecular nanohelices and interfacial dynamic bilayers to enhance ion transport and interfacial stability.Reinforced asymmetric cells exhibit a high coulombic efficiency of 99.66% over 2400 cycles, while the corresponding full cells retain 86% of their initial capacity after 1000 cycles, demonstrating outstanding electrochemical stability and durability.Scorpion tail-inspired flexible battery design provides stable energy output under various mechanical states and powers wearable sensors.

Bionic self-assembly strategy forms bulk supramolecular nanohelices and interfacial dynamic bilayers to enhance ion transport and interfacial stability.

Reinforced asymmetric cells exhibit a high coulombic efficiency of 99.66% over 2400 cycles, while the corresponding full cells retain 86% of their initial capacity after 1000 cycles, demonstrating outstanding electrochemical stability and durability.

Scorpion tail-inspired flexible battery design provides stable energy output under various mechanical states and powers wearable sensors.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40820-026-02071-5.

The rapid growth of wearable electronics demands power sources that are not only flexible and durable but also inherently safe. Conventional lithium-ion batteries pose safety risks due to toxic and flammable electrolytes. Aqueous metal-ion batteries offer a promising alternative, yet their application remains limited by poor mechanical compliance, leading to interfacial instability and electrolyte leakage. Here, we report a bionic self-assembly strategy for aqueous zinc-ion batteries using a lipopeptide electrolyte additive named C16K, enabling bulk self-assembly into supramolecular nanohelices to accelerate ion transport and interfacial organization into a dynamic bilayer for interphase regulation. This dual-function synergistically suppresses the formation of Zn dendrites or side reactions, enabling stable Zn plating/stripping. This achieves an ultralong cycling stability and ultrahigh cumulative plating capacity along with a high coulombic efficiency. Therefore, the synergistic reinforcement endows the pouch cell to deliver a high initial capacity, allowing to power electronics in a safe manner. In a following manner, a scorpion tail-inspired bionic flexible battery structure is designed to deliver sustainable energy outputs across various mechanical states using the reinforced systems, effectively powering the wearable multimodal sensors. Our results present a self-assembly strategy using a lipopeptide additive to synergistically reinforce the ions transport and interfacial stability, coordination with a bionic structural design, potentially offering a bioinspired routine for high-performance flexible batteries for wearable electronics.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40820-026-02071-5.

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