Guiding the crystal orientation to coordinate zinc deposition for high-durable zinc-ion batteries

Abstract

The Zn(002) texture deposition with high thermodynamic stability is considered to be an efficient approach for mitigating dendrite growth and side reactions. However, attaining (002) plane-oriented Zn deposition is difficult because of significant lattice deformation and non-uniform electric field distribution. Herein, an electrolyte containing N, N-diethylchloroacetamide (CDEA) is proposed to regulate the epitaxial deposition of Zn²⁺. The CDEA molecule exhibits the preferential adsorption on Zn(101) via the polar -C = O group in CDEA, thereby promoting the predominant exposure of the Zn²⁺ plane with the lowest deposition rate on Zn₍₁₀₁₎, which in turn facilitates uniform Zn deposition along the Zn₍₁₀₁₎ orientation. Consequently, the asymmetrical Zn//Cu cell has exceptional cycling stability, exceeding 1700 cycles with an average coulombic efficiency (CE) of up to 99.72 %. Moreover, the Zn//VO₂ full cell can stably maintain a high specific capacity of 245.5 mAh g ⁻¹ even after 4000 cycles. The current work sheds new light on how to generate dendrite-free Zn anodes using crystal plane manipulation techniques.