The Lotus Effect Inspired Hydrophobic Strategy for Stable Zn Metal Anode.

The Zn-ion batteries (ZIBs) have long suffered from the unstable Zn metal anode, which faces numerous challenges concerning dendrite growth, corrosion and hydrogen evolution reaction. The absence of H 2 O adsorption control techniques has become a bottleneck for the further development of ZIBs. Using the stearic acid (SA)-modified Cu@Zn (SA-Cu@Zn) anode as example, we herein illustrate how the lotus effect controls the H 2 O adsorption energy on Zn metal anode. The in-situ integrated Cu nanorods arrays and hydrophobic long-chain alkyl groups have been constructed, which provide zincophilic ordered channels and hydrophobic property. Consequently, the SA-Cu@Zn anode exhibits long-term cycling stability over 2000 h and high average Coulombic efficiency of 99.83% at 1 mA cm -2 for 1 mAh cm -2 , which has improved the electrochemical performance of Zn||V 2 O 5 full cell. DFT calculations combined with water contact angle measurements demonstrated that the SA-Cu@Zn exhibits larger water contact angle and weaker H 2 O adsorption than Zn. Moreover, the presence of Cu ensures the selective adsorption of Zn on the SA-Cu@Zn anode, well explaining how excellent reversibility has been achieved. This work demonstrates the effectiveness of the lotus effect on controllable H 2 O adsorption and Zn deposition mechanism, offering a universal strategy for achieving stable ZIBs anode. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.