Synchronously nucleated inducing deposition of Zn²⁺ and homogenized electric field endowed by 3D porous host for dendrite-free Zn metal anodes

Aqueous rechargeable Zn-metal batteries have great potential in the field of energy storage owing to high theoretical capacity, low electrochemical potential, low cost, and good safety performance of the Zn anodes. However, Zn anode has a series of problems such as dendrite growth, surface passivation and corrosion, which limits its further development. To address these issues, a new zinc anode with a 3D porous host compounded with TiO₂ nanowire arrays (NWAs) decorated with rGO and CNTs (TGC) was constructed. Density functional theory result demonstrates that the TiO₂ exhibits superior binding energies of zinc, as the super-zincophilic nucleation sites, which can be conducive to a uniform deposition of the zinc and give an effective guidance to construct 3D novel dendrite-free Zn metal anodes. The 3D porous conductive network formed by rGO and CNTs homogenized the electric field and alleviated the volume expansion during the cycle. As expected, the TGC host guarantees the steady Zn plating/stripping with a long-term stability over 3000 h at the current density of 1 mA cm⁻². As a validation, a Zn@TGC//MnO₂ full cell shows long lifespan over 1000 cycles at 1.0 A g⁻¹.