The ultrathin prenucleation interface–stabilized metal Zn anode toward high-performance flexible Zn-batteries

Abstract Flexible zinc (Zn) metal batteries (ZMBs) have attracted particular attention because of much high volumetric capacity of Zn anodes (5845 mAh/cm3) and abundant Zn resources in the earth. However, the unfavorable mechanical flexibility and poor cycling stability caused by the rigid and uncontrolled dendrites of Zn anodes hinder their development. Herein, a dendrite-free Zn metal anode is achieved by an ultrathin NH4V4O10 film–modified carbon cloth, which can be served as Zn nucleation sites to effectively reduce the overpotential for Zn uniform deposition. As a result, the half-cell with the carbon cloth@NH4V4O10-16 (CC@NVO-16) electrode exhibited a stable cycling performance of over 280 cycles at 1 mA/cm2 with high Coulombic efficiency of 99.21% and much lower overpotential. Excitingly, the flexible solid-state ZMB with the CC@NVO-16@Zn exhibits superior stability and a high energy density of 374.6 Wh/kg/980.0 W/kg, which is superior to the most recent report so far. This work also provides an efficient strategy in constructing long-life and safe flexible ZMB systems.