Transforming Undesired Corrosion Products into a Nanoflake-Array Functional Layer: A Gelatin-Assistant Modification...

As corrosion products of Zn anodes in ZnSO₄ electrolytes, Zn₄SO₄ (OH)₆·xH₂O with loose structure cannot suppress persistent side reactions but can increase the electrode polarization and induce dendrite growth, hindering the practical applications of Zn metal batteries. In this work, a functional layer is built on the Zn anode by a gelatin-assistant corrosion and low-temperature pyrolysis method. With the assistant of gelatin, undesired corrosion products are converted into a uniform nanoflake array comprising ZnO coated by gelatin-derived carbon on Zn foil (denoted Zn@ZnO@GC). It is revealed that the gelatin-derived carbons not only enhance the electron conductivity, facilitate Zn²⁺ desolvation, and boost transport/deposition kinetics, but also inhibit the occurrence of hydrogen evolution and corrosion reactions on the zincophilic Zn@ZnO@GC anode. Moreover, the 3D nanoflake array effectively homogenizes the current density and Zn²⁺ concentration, thus inhibiting the formation of dendrites. The symmetric cells using the Zn@ZnO@GC anodes exhibit superior cycling performance (over 7000 h at 1 mA cm^-2/1 mAh cm^-2) and without short-circuiting even up to 25 mAh cm^-2. The Zn@ZnO@GC||NaV₃O₈ full cell works stably for 5000 cycles even with a limited N/P ratio of ≈5.5, showing good application prospects.