A zinc-conducting chalcogenide electrolyte.

A solid-state zinc-ion battery can fundamentally eliminate dendrite formation and hydrogen evolution on the zinc anode from aqueous systems. However, enabling fast zinc ion conduction in solid crystals is thought to be impossible. Here, we demonstrated a fluorine-doping approach to achieving fast Zn transport in mesoporous ZnSF. The substitutional doping of fluoride ion with sulfide substantially reduces Zn migration barrier in a crystalline phase, while mesopore channels with bounded dimethylformamide enable nondestructive Zn conduction along inner pore surface. This mesoporous conductor features a high room-temperature Zn conductivity (0.66 millisiemens per centimeter, compared with 0.01 to 1 millisiemens per centimeter for lithium solid-state electrolyte) with a superior cycling performance (89.5% capacity retention over 5000 cycles) in a solid zinc-ion battery and energy density (0.04 watt-hour per cubic centimeter) in a solid zinc-ion capacitor. The universality of this crystal engineering approach was also verified in other mesoporous zinc chalcogenide materials, which implies various types of potential Zn-conducting solid electrolytes.