Texture Engineering of Zinc Metal Anodes via Alkyl Polyglucosides Surfactants for Improved Anode Stability

The severe dendrite growth and inherent surface passivation layer of Zn anodes greatly undermine the reversibility and practicality of aqueous zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs). Herein, an optimized chemical polishing strategy to texture Zn metals is developed via the incorporation of the acid etching solution and alkyl polyglucoside (APG) surfactant. The APG-assisted acid-etched Zn metals (AAE-Zn) possess a surface free of passivation layer and a high (002) texture. Mechanistic studies reveal that APG significantly improves the wettability between the acid etching solution and Zn metals, avoiding the incomplete etching caused by the adhesion of generated bubbles to the Zn metal surface. Additionally, APG featuring preferential adsorption on the (100) and (101) crystal planes can increase the etching efficacy of the above two crystal planes to render the high proportion (002) texture remaining. The cooperation of no passivation layer surface and (002) texture not only suppresses dendrite growth and related side reactions but also ensures uniformly distributed electric field and Zn²⁺ ion flux. Consequently, AAE-Zn electrodes exhibit long-term lifespan over 4000 h at 1 mA cm^-2 and 110 h at 85% depth of discharge in the symmetric cells and maintains 80% of the initial capacity after 1500 cycles at 10 A g^-1 for coin-type full cells. This chemical polishing approach offers a compelling strategy to propel the large-scale commercialization of aqueous ZIBs toward realization.