Surface Transformation Enables a Dendrite‐Free Zinc‐Metal Anode in Nonaqueous Electrolyte
Fanyang Huang, Xinpeng Li, Yuchen Zhang, Yulin Jie, Xulin Mu, Chaoran Yang, Wanxia Li, Yawei Chen, Liu Yang, Shuai Wang, Binghui Ge, Ruiguo Cao, Xiaodi Ren, Pengfei Yan, Qi Li, Dongsheng Xu, Shuhong Jiao
Abstract
Abstract Significant challenges remain in developing rechargeable zinc batteries mainly because of reversibility problems on zinc‐metal anodes. The dendritic growth and hydrogen evolution on zinc electrodes are major obstacles to overcome in developing practical and safe zinc batteries. Here, a dendrite‐free and hydrogen‐free Zn‐metal anode with high Coulombic efficiency up to 99.6% over 300 cycles is realized in a newly designed nonaqueous electrolyte, which comprises an inexpensive zinc salt, zinc acetate, and a green low‐cost solvent, dimethyl sulfoxide. Surface transformation on Cu substrate plays a critical role in facilitating the dendrite‐free deposition process, which lowers the diffusion energy barrier of the Zn atoms, leading to a uniform and compact thin film for zinc plating. Furthermore, in situ electrochemical atomic force microscopy reveals the plating process via a layer‐by‐layer growth mechanism and the stripping process through an edge‐dissolution mechanism. In addition, Zn||Mo 6 S 8 full cells exhibit excellent electrochemical performance in terms of cycling stability and rate capability. This work presents a new opportunity to develop nonaqueous rechargeable zinc batteries.