A Cr Doped ZnO Hydrophobic Interface Protective Layer for Highly Reversible Zinc Anodes

ABSTRACT In recent years, aqueous zinc‐ion batteries (AZIBs) have attracted increasing attention due to their intrinsic safety and high theoretical energy density. However, their practical performance remains plagued by dendrite growth as well as side reactions on the Zn anode. Herein, we construct a multifunctional artificial interface that homogenizes ion flux, accelerates Zn 2+ diffusion, and regulates Zn deposition. The synergistic effect of a zincophilic and hydrophobic interface effectively induces stable (101)‐oriented Zn growth combined with a porous nanoparticle network. As a result, the assembled ZCR‐Zn (Cr‐doped ZnO) symmetric cells present ultralong cycling stability (over 2050 h) at 5 mA cm −2 (1 mA h cm −2 ). Moreover, the ZCR‐Zn//V 3 O 7 ·H 2 O devices deliver a specific capacity of 554.47 mA h g −1 at 0.1 A g −1 and retain a capacity retention of 94.6% after 1000 times cycling at 5.0 A g −1 . This work proposes a scalable protection strategy to enable dendrite‐free and high‐performance Zn metal anodes.