Mxene and GaIn Alloy Nanostructures Regulate Zn Surface Ion Deposition for High-Performance Zinc-Ion Battery

Zinc is an ideal energy storage material because of its low toxicity, nonflammability, and good biocompatibility. However, the commercial application is seriously hindered due to problems such as dendrite growth, hydrogen evolution, and interface passivation caused by “dead zinc” in the process of cyclic deposition. Herein, a nanoscale deposition dispersion model is designed in order to achieve directional deposition and uniform distribution of zinc ions for the growth of interfacial dendrites. Liquid metal GaIn was combined with Mxene for this nanostructure, which provides a rapid ion transfer channel to achieve lower overpotentials, a more uniform electric field distribution, and stronger corrosion resistance in a core–shell structure to achieve interface reaction suppression. The material was coated on the surface of the zinc metal as an artificial protective layer. It has a better cycle life at 1 mA·cm^–2 compared with the bare Zn metal anode, achieving a long cycle time of 1100 h and an ultralow voltage lag (28.1 mV). It maintains the stability for 1000 cycles at 1 mA·cm^–2 after assembling the complete battery. This provides a way to improve the performance of zinc-ion secondary batteries and paves the way for the next generation of energy storage devices.