High-pressure deformation exposes zinc (002) crystal planes adapted for high-performance zinc anodes

Abstract

Excessive dendrite growth will seriously affect the future development of aqueous zinc-ion batteries. Therefore, reducing dendrite formation during anode cycling has important practical significance for ZiBs. Previous research have shown that the (002) crystal plane induces zinc to deposit on the anode surface at a small angle, thereby mitigating the generation of longitudinal dendrites and thereby improving cycle performance. This paper uses extrusion method to prepare zinc foil with high (002) crystal plane ratio, in which the diffraction peak intensity ratio of (002)/(100) crystal plane is about 130.The assembled symmetrical battery can operate stably for 400 h at 0.5 mA cm−2 and 0.5 mAh cm−2, and obtains a cycle life of 160 h at 20 mA cm−2 and 20 mAh cm−2. The surface of the anode after cycling exhibits thin and large deposited flakes, fully exhibiting the characteristics of the (002) crystal plane. In terms of plating/stripping kinetics, because the (002) crystal plane has high adsorption energy for zinc, PZn obtains a lower polarization voltage and a larger exchange current density (4.56 mA cm−2). In addition, due to the low surface energy of the (002) crystal plane, which also shows a lower activation energy (17.95 kJ mol−1), lowers the reaction energy barrier, and reduces the difficulty of the electrode reaction. In terms of practicality, it has approximately 140 mAh g−1 at 1 A g−1 in a complete cell consisting of Na sodium-doped V2O5 cathode. It also has a 94 % capacity retention rate after cycling. This article verifies the influence of rich (002) crystal planes on the performance of metallic zinc anodes, and provides guidance for the future optimization of crystal planes of zinc anodes.