Dendrite-free Zn anode supported with 3D carbon nanofiber skeleton towards stable zinc ion batteries

The 3D structured Zn anode which is grown on the surface of carbon cloth/carbon nanofiber framework (CC-CNF) can reduce the nucleation overpotential of the electrode and suppress dendrites owing to the high conductivity and abundant nucleation sites of the 3D skeleton. Zn-ion battery (ZIB) is a promising electrochemical energy storage device because of the high performance, safety, and economic benefits, etc. However, the formation of Zn dendrites at anodes is seriously depressed their cycling life, Coulombic efficiency, safety, and capacity. Inhibition of Zn dendrites is considered as an efficient solution to improving the performance of ZIB. Herein, we demonstrate a 3D structured Zn anode coated in carbon nanofiber framework with carbon cloth as substrate (Zn@CC-CNF), which has the abundant Zn nucleation sites and homogeneous electrical field distribution for uniform Zn deposition, low nucleation/deposition energy barrier, and the capacity of alleviating side reactions. Thus, the Zn@CC-CNF based symmetric cells is stability operated over 400 h, which is over 400% longer than that of bare Zn coated on carbon cloth (Zn@CC). The impressive performance of the Zn@CC-CNF anode also endows the assembled Zn-MnO 2 full cell with long-term cycling stability. Better yet, the intrinsic flexibility of the carbon substrate enables the fabrication of flexible Zn-MnO 2 cell with gratifying mechanical deformation tolerance, illustrating their great application potential in flexible energy storage.