(002)-Textured zinc metal anode with low residual stress for stable aqueous zinc batteries

Rechargeable aqueous zinc batteries have significant promise for large-scale energy storage applications due to their low cost and high safety. However, the dendrite growth and side reactions at the zinc anode severely restrict their commercialization. While plastic deformation can be used to directly prepare (002) textured zinc anodes, but it will introduce harmful residual stresses, which have been shown to be the intrinsic to dendrite growth. In this study, we propose a simple annealing method for successfully achieving a balance between texture optimization and stresses mitigation in zinc metal anode. The low-residual-stress zinc metal anode with (002) texture prepared in this way exhibits excellent cycle stability in Zn||Zn symmetric cell (stable cycling for 2230 h at 1 mA cm⁻²), and significantly improves the performance of the Zn||MnO₂ full cell (capacity retention of ∼90.48 % after 800 cycles at 1 A g⁻¹). This research provides an effective, simple solution for industrially preparing high-performance zinc anodes, and promotes the practical application of aqueous zinc batteries.