3D Architected Zn With Hydrophilic-Hydrophobic Patterned Surfaces as Stable and Robust Anodes

Aqueous zinc batteries emerge as a promising energy storage technology due to their high safety and low cost. However, challenges such as dendrite growth and electrolyte corrosion severely limit the reversibility of zinc anodes. In this study, a 3D Zn architecture with hydrophilic-hydrophobic patterned surfaces is proposed for robust and stable anodes. The 3D architecture of Zn offers sufficient sites and space for zinc plating, the hydrophobic layer isolates Zn from water attack, and the hydrophilic layer facilitates the rapid transport of electrolyte ions. This unique design endows Zn with robust Zn stripping and plating behaviors, outperforming many recently reported Zn anodes. Notably, symmetric batteries with this Zn achieve 2500 h of stable cycling at 5 mA cm⁻². In addition, Zn-ion capacitors with this Zn anode exhibit outstanding cycling stability, maintaining a capacity retention of 76% over 5000 cycles at 0.5 A g⁻¹. This study highlights that the rational integration of multiple strategies can fully leverage their merits to achieve exceptional performance, thus offering a reliable solution for enabling stable and dendrite-free operation of metal batteries.