The application of Zn metal anode in aqueous zinc metal batteries (AZMBs) is limited by unstable interface, which induced notorious dendrite growth and corrosion. In this report, a bionic ion pumps interface for Zn metal anode is proposed and constructed by dynamically assembling acetylated protein (α-HPace) (Zn@BIPI/α-HPace). The α-HPace with abundant amide bonds is preferentially assembled on the fresh Zn metal surface as interface, due to its strong recognition of Zn2+. It is demonstrated by TOF-SIMS that the organic -CONH- and inorganic ZnF2/ZnS are the uniformly dispersed section of interface film, played as Zn2+ transport sites and dense barrier layer respectively. Thus, the bionic ion pumps interface is not only beneficial to rapid transport of Zn2+ but also effective to prevent aqueous electrolyte erosion. More importantly, the Zn@BIPI/α-HPace anode achieves uniform deposition with absolute predominant orientation of 91% (100) planes. As improved results, the symmetric cell with Zn@BIPI/α-HPace electrode achieves a long cycle life of over 6000 h, and the full cell with Zn@BIPI/α-HPace anode and NaV3O8-1.5H2O cathode exhibits a high-capacity retention of ~92% after 5000 cycles at 5 A g-1. This study of achieving bionic ion-pump interface engineering provides a novel approach to facilitate the practical application of AZMBs.
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