High Zn(002)-preferential orientation enabled by proton additive for dendrite-free zinc anode

Although zinc-based batteries have long been considered as one of the most promising technologies for large-scale energy storage, its development was still seriously hindered by dendrite formation. Constructing highly (002)-textured Zn electrode to guide Zn deposition has been demonstrated as an effective approach for dendrite suppression due to the lowest surface energy and closest packing morphology of Zn(002) texture. Herein, cation additive (proton) was for the first time reported as a universal strategy to effectively promote the formation of Zn(002) texture. A high Zn(002)-preferential orientation was obtained in a simple ZnSO4 + H2SO4 electrolyte, which effectively suppressed formation of dendrite and side-reaction production. And Zn(002)||Zn(002) symmetric cell can cycle stably up to unprecedented 1900 hours under a practical deposition capacity of 5 mAh cm-2 with 5 mA cm-2 current density. Morphology evolution and formation mechanism of Zn (002) texture in electrolyte with proton additive was also systematically investigated. The cation texturing strategy may provide novel insights for constructing high (002)-preferential orientation of metallic Zn.