Ultrathin surface coating of conductive and zincophilic titanium oxynitride enables stable zinc anodes for aqueous zinc-ion batteries

The lifespan of aqueous zinc ion batteries (AZIB) has been hindered by the instability of zinc anodes, encountering challenges such as ir-regular dendritic growth, corrosion and hydrogen evolution reactions. Here, an ultrathin conductive titanium oxynitride (TiN x O y ) layer with rich zincophilic sites is constructed by a high-precision and atomic-scale controlled atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique for sta-bilizing the Zn anode. The TiN x O y layer acts as a bi-functional barrier, effectively isolating metal zinc from the electrolyte and thereby mitigating spontaneous corrosion and hydrogen evolution reaction of the Zn anode. Additionally, it enhances zincophilic sites and ho-mogenizes the distribution of interfacial electric field, facilitating uniform plating and stripping of Zn at the anode. Consequently, the TiN x O y @Zn anode exhibits significantly reduced over-potential and long-term cycling stability over 1300 h at 1 mA cm -2 in symmetric cell. The full cell is assembled with a TiN x O y @Zn anode and MnO 2 cathode, achieving a capacity of 85.3 mAh g -1 after 4500 cycles at 10 C.