Synergistic Effects of CuZn Nanoparticles and Graphene for Advanced Zinc Anodes in Aqueous Zinc-Ion Batteries

Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) have garnered significant attention as promising next-generation energy storage devices due to their advantages of low cost, operational safety, and high theoretical specific capacity. Nevertheless, interface instability issues including dendrite growth, hydrogen evolution, and corrosion severely compromise zinc anode reversiblity. This study presents a novel strategy employing CuZn alloy nanoparticles anchored on graphene sheets (CZPG) as a multifuctional protective coating. The CZPG architecture establishes a dual-functional interface: graphene provides high-conductivity pathways and abundant nucleation sites, while CuZn nanoparticles demonstrate expecetional zincophilicity and hydrogen evolution suppression. The alloy's elevated dezincification potential synergizes with graphene's conductive network to regulate Zn²⁺ flux distribution and deposition kinetics. Systematic characterization reveals that the CZPG coating enable homogeneous zinc nucleation while suppressing parasitic reactions. Consequently, CZPG@Zn symmetric cells achieve remarkable cycling stability exceeding 1300 h at a 5.0 mA·cm^-2 and 2.5 mAh·cm^-2, providing a 24-fold increase in cycle life compared to bare Zn. When paired with KVO cathodes, full cells maintain 81.9% capacity retention after 1000 cycles, demonstrating 10-fold improvement over conventional Zn anodes. This interfacial engineering approach through alloy-graphene hybrid coatings provides new insights for developing high-preformance AZIBs, showing significant potential for grid-scale enegy storage applications.