Alloying-Induced (002) Preferred Orientation Enabling Stable Zinc Anode

Aqueous zinc (Zn) metal batteries (AZMBs) are considered promising candidates for large-scale energy storage owing to their low cost and intrinsic safety. However, the structural instability of Zn metal anodes becomes particularly severe under long-life operation, where extensive Zn stripping and plating lead to texture degradation, random nucleation, and dendrite growth. Although preferential Zn (002) orientation has been widely explored to improve thermodynamic stability and corrosion resistance, maintaining this crystallographic texture during deep cycling remains challenging. Herein, we report an alloy anode with a stabilized (002) preferential orientation for aqueous Zn batteries. The introduction of indium (In) acts as a regulatory factor that preserves the dominant Zn (002) texture and dynamically regulates Zn plating behavior during cycling. During stripping, Zn²⁺ preferentially dissolves along the (002) plane, maintaining a planar surface morphology. During plating, Zn²⁺ tends to fill non-(002) planes, resulting in compact and uniform growth. Meanwhile, the presence of In suppresses corrosion and parasitic reactions, further enhancing the structural stability of the anode. As a result, the Zn-In anode achieves an average Coulombic efficiency (CE) of 99.91% over 10000 cycles. Moreover, the alloy anode can also cycle stably for more than 3200 h in symmetric cells. Full cells deliver high capacity and stable cycling in both coin and pouch configurations. This work demonstrates a synergistic strategy for constructing durable, high-utilization Zn metal anodes toward practical aqueous batteries.