The low-temperature deposition of a zincophilic carbon layer on the Zn foil for long-life zinc metal batteries

Aqueous zinc metal batteries (ZMBs) which are environmentally benign and cheap can be used for grid-scale energy storage, but have a short cycling life mainly due to the poor reversibility of zinc metal anodes in mild aqueous electrolytes. A zincophilic carbon (ZC) layer was deposited on a Zn metal foil at 450 °C by the up-stream pyrolysis of a hydrogen-bonded supramolecular substance framework, assembled from melamine (ME) and cyanuric acid (CA). The zincophilic groups (C＝O and C＝N) in the ZC layer guide uniform zinc plating/stripping and eliminate dendrites and side reactions. so that assembled symmetrical batteries (ZC@Zn//ZC@Zn) have a long-term service life of 2500 h at 1 mA cm −2 and 1 mAh cm −2 , which is much longer than that of bare Zn anodes (180 h). In addition, ZC@Zn//V 2 O 5 full batteries have a higher capacity of 174 mAh g −1 after 1200 cycles at 2 A g −1 than a Zn//V 2 O 5 counterpart (100 mAh g −1 ). The strategy developed for the low-temperature deposition of the ZC layer is a new way to construct advanced zinc metal anodes for ZMBs.