An ultrahigh rate dendrite-free Zn metal deposition/striping enabled by silver nanowire aerogel with optimal atomic affinity with Zn

In spite of substantial efforts to handle zinc-dendrite growth issue, stable cycling of Zn metal anodes with various modifications remains extremely challenging, especially at ultrahigh rate, ultrahigh areal capacity or high zinc utilization. Here, a light silver nanowire aerogel (AgNWA) via vertical self-assembly method is constructed to guide a uniform Zn plating/stripping process at these extreme conditions. Via the first-principle calculations and electric field simulation, it can be known that the silver substrate as zincophilic sites prompts an optimal adsorption capacity on the anode surface, and 3D crosslinking structure of AgNWA renders a uniformly distributed electric field for reversible Zn deposition/stripping. As a result, the use of AgNWA anode enables dendrite-free Zn deposition at 40 mA/cm² ultrahigh rate and 10 mAh/cm² ultrahigh areal capacity for 200 cycles with 99.8% coulombic efficiency and stable cycling of full cells under limited Zn excess in the anode. During practical use, the AgNWA@Zn//C-MOF hybrid supercapacitor delivered a stable and high capacitance retention for ultra-long 24,000 cycles at the huge current density of 40 mA/cm². Furthermore, the anode-free configured AgNWA//α-MnO₂ battery with zinc utilization of 100% still retains 73% capacity after 600 cycles. The design of 3D lightweight AgNWA will shed light on developing fast-charging zinc batteries with reversible and durable Zn-metal deposition/stripping as well as high zinc utilization under limited conditions.