A research team led by Professors Hoseok Park and Saebyeok Cho from the Department of Chemical Engineering announced that they have successfully designed stereoisomer-based electrolyte additives and developed functional electrolytes for high-capacity, long-life aqueous batteries.

* Stereoisomers: Compounds that have the same atomic connectivity but differ in their three-dimensional arrangement, acting as distinct substances.

Recently, research into high-capacity, safe, and low-cost batteries for large-scale applications such as data centers and energy storage systems (ESS) has been active. In particular, zinc, a non-lithium metal, is attracting attention as an anode material for aqueous batteries due to its high capacity, abundance, and ability to be deposited in water-based electrolytes.

However, zinc anodes face challenges such as uneven deposition, metal corrosion, and cell swelling caused by hydrogen evolution, leading to reduced efficiency and limited charge–discharge cycles. To overcome this, the development of electrolyte and interfacial control technologies that can induce reversible zinc deposition is required.

The research team developed an electrolyte additive technology inspired by stereoisomers found in nature, improving both the reversibility of zinc deposition and the cycle life of aqueous batteries.

* Reversibility: The ability of a material to change into another state and then return to its original state.

By using the stereoisomers of butenedioic acid—fumaric acid (trans-isomer) and maleic acid (cis-isomer)—which have different electron distributions and spatial arrangements, the researchers created multifunctional additives that simultaneously control the solvation structure and interfacial properties of electrolytes. This enabled them to achieve over 99.9% Coulombic efficiency and a cycle life exceeding 6,000 hours.

* Coulombic efficiency: The ratio of discharge capacity to charge capacity.

Using advanced analysis techniques such as femtosecond laser spectroscopy, the team further clarified the solvation structures and desolvation dynamics of electrolytes depending on the isomer type. Fumaric acid was shown to form ion-conducting channels at the electrode interface, thereby enhancing the reversibility of zinc deposition.

In experiments with copper current collectors coated with zinc and with full cells, they achieved a record-high capacity of 100 mAh/g and a cycle life of over 1,000 cycles. Moreover, they demonstrated anode-free technology using only copper current collectors, achieving stable cycling performance up to 270 cycles in anode-free full cells.

• Current collector: A thin conductive substrate that enables electron transfer between active materials and external circuits during charge and discharge.
• Full cell: Unlike half-cells that assume an unlimited zinc supply, a full cell balances the capacities of the anode and cathode, better reflecting the design of commercial batteries.

Professor Park, the lead researcher, stated:“The electrolyte additive technology we developed is significant as an economical and efficient approach applicable to various battery systems and compatible with existing process infrastructure. Moving forward, we plan to continue research on high-voltage, high-capacity cathode thick-film technology and tailored electrolytes to raise the energy density of aqueous batteries to the level of lithium iron phosphate and sodium-ion batteries.”

This research was supported by the Leader Research Program and the Future-Pioneering Convergence Program of the Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Research Foundation of Korea. The results were published in Nature Communications on July 10, 2025.

(Figure 1) A schematic showing the effects of stereoisomer-based additives (trans-fumaric acid and cis-maleic acid) on solvation structure and interfacial control in suppressing irreversible reactions. The trans-fumaric acid additive, through molecular interactions, induced changes in solvation structure, SEI formation, and ion-channel formation at the interface, thereby suppressing irreversible reactions (hydrogen evolution, corrosion, and dendrite growth) at the zinc anode.

※ Title : Stereoisomerism of Multi-Functional Electrolyte Additives for Initially Anodeless Aqueous Zinc Metal Batteries

※ Journal : Nature Communications

※ DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-61382-0