Dendrite-free and stable Zn metal anodes with ZnO protective layer

Authors：Hou ZhenHua; Tao HuaChao^*; Wang JiaXu; Zhang LuLu; Yang XueLin^*

Source：Science in China Series E-Technological Sciences, 2022, 65(10): 2361-2368.

DOI：10.1007/s11431-022-2117-9

• aqueous zinc-ion batteries
• Zn anode
• ZnO protective layer
• dendrite-free

Metallic Zn can be used as an anode for aqueous zinc-ion batteries due to its low redox potential, rich resources, and high theoretical capacity. However, its practical application is limited by dendrite growth and side reactions. Herein, a simple in-situ growth strategy was applied to fabricate a Zn anode with a ZnO protective layer (Zn/ZnO) to lengthen the cycle life and inhibit the dendrite growth and side reactions. At 1 mA h cm(-2) capacity, Zn/ZnO exhibits long-time stability (2500 h) at 1 mA cm(-2) and outstanding rate capability (1000 h at 10 mA cm(-2)) in symmetrical cells. Furthermore, the average coulombic efficiency of the Zn/ZnO//Ti cell is 99.4%, which is desirable at 5 mA cm(-2). In addition, the Zn/ZnO//MnO2 cell can maintain a specific capacity of 167.2 mA h g(-1) after 800 stable cycles. This work presents a simple fabrication method for Zn anode with excellent performance and suggests the huge possibilities of implementing practically rechargeable aqueous zinc-ion batteries.