Cold-Pressing Strategy for Constructing Simple and High-Performance Dendrite-Free Zinc Anodes for Aqueous Zinc-Ion Batteries
Yu Zhang, Zexu Hu, Yiyang Bi, Song‐Lin Tian, Haoran Sun, Kai Li, Wanqiang Liu, Lianshan Sun, Wei Liu, Dong Wang
Abstract
Dendrite growth, corrosion, and side reactions on zinc anodes significantly hinder the commercialization of aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs). To address these challenges, we propose a simple and cost-effective room-temperature cold-pressing process to build dendrite-free zinc anodes by means of a special collector-composite structure. Specifically, the symmetric cell assembled with copper mesh (CM) based Zn anodes exhibited remarkable cycling stability over 4000 h at 1 mA cm –2 current density and also exhibited an exceptionally long life of over 2800 h at 5 mA cm –2 current density, reflecting the Stability of Zn zinc plating/stripping cycles. In situ optical microscopy was employed to investigate the deposition behavior of the CM electrode during repeated plating and stripping processes. Density functional theory (DFT) calculates that Zn 2+ ions are preferentially adsorbed on the copper surface, while COMSOL simulation elucidates the homogeneous electric field and current density distribution due to the unique three-dimensional structure of the CM electrode. These synergistic effects effectively inhibited the growth of dendrites, ensuring a stable zinc deposition process. This work provides a scalable approach for designing dendrite-free zinc anodes for practical AZIB applications.