Quasi-Isolated Au Particles as Heterogeneous Seeds to Guide Uniform Zn Deposition for Aqueous Zinc-Ion Batteries

As a promising anode for aqueous batteries, Zn metal shows a number of attractive advantages such as low cost, low redox potential, high capacity, and environmental benignity. Nevertheless, the quick growth of dendrites/protrusions on the "hostless" Zn anodes not only enlarges batteries' internal resistance but also causes sudden shorting failure by piercing separators. Herein, we report a novel heterogeneous seed method to guide the morphology evolution of plated Zn. The heterogeneous seeds are sputtering-deposited quasi-isolated nano-Au particles (Au-NPs) that enable a uniform and stable Zn-plating/stripping process on the anodes. Tested on Zn|Zn symmetric cells, the Au-nanoparticle (NP) decorated Zn anodes (NA-Zn) demonstrate much better cycling stability than the bare ones (92 vs 2000 h). In NA-Zn|CNT/MnO₂ batteries, this heterogeneous seed prolongs the lifetime of the device from ∼480 cycles up to 2000 cycles. This work offers a facile and promising Zn dendrite/protrusion suppressing route for the achievement of long-life Zn-ion batteries.