Bulk‐Phase Reconstruction Enables Robust Zinc Metal Anodes for Aqueous Zinc‐Ion Batteries
Zefang Yang, Chao Hu, Qi Zhang, Tingqing Wu, Chunlin Xie, Hao Wang, Hao Wang, Yougen Tang, Xiaobo Ji, Haiyan Wang, Haiyan Wang
Abstract
Aqueous zinc-ion batteries are inherently safe, but the severe dendrite growth and corrosion reaction on zinc anodes greatly hinder their practical applications. Most of the strategies for zinc anode modification refer to the research of lithium metal anodes on surface regulation without considering the intrinsic mechanisms of zinc anode. Herein, we first point out that surface modification cannot permanently protect zinc anodes due to the unavoidable surface damage during the stripping process by solid-liquid conversion. A bulk-phase reconstruction strategy is proposed to introduce abundant zincophilic sites both on the surface and inside the commercial zinc foils. The bulk-phase reconstructed zinc foil anodes exhibit uniform surfaces with high zincophilicity even after deep stripping, significantly improving the resistance to dendrite growth and side reactions. Our proposed strategy suggests a promising direction for the development of dendrite-free metal anodes for practical rechargeable batteries with high sustainability.