Electrostatic Shielding Regulation of Magnetron Sputtered Al-Based Alloy Protective Coatings Enables Highly Reversible Zinc Anodes

The uncontrolled zinc dendrite growth during plating leads to quick battery failure, which hinders the widespread applications of aqueous zinc-ion batteries. The growth of Zn dendrites is often promoted by the “tip effect”. In this work, we propose a generate strategy to eliminate the “tip effect” by utilizing the electrostatic shielding effect, which is achieved by coating Zn anodes with magnetron sputtered Al-based alloy protective layers. The Al can form a surface insulating Al2O3 layer and by manipulating the Al content of Zn–Al alloy films, we are able to control the strength of the electrostatic shield, therefore realizing a long lifespan of Zn anodes up to 3000 h at a practical operating condition of…

• NN
  National Natural Science Foundation of China

  Awards: 22075236, 51601163, 22001081
• MO
  Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China

  Award: 2017YFE0198100
• NS
  Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province

  Award: 2021J011211
• XU
  Xiamen University