Zn anodes of aqueous Zn metal batteries face challenges from dendrite growth and side reactions. Building Zn(002) texture mitigates the issues but does not eradicate them. Zn(002) still faces severe challenges from corrosive electrolytes and dendrite growth, especially after hundreds of cycles. Therefore, it is necessary to have a passivation layer covering Zn(002). Here, Zn(002) texture and surface coating are achieved on Zn foils by an one-step annealing process, as demonstrated by ZnS, ZnSe, ZnF2, Zn3(PO4)2 (ZPO), etc. Using ZPO as a model, the coupling between surface coating and Zn(002) is illustrated in terms of dendrite-suppressing ability and diffusion energy barrier of Zn2+. The modified Zn foils (Zn(002)@ZPO) exhibit the excellent electrochemical performance, far superior to Zn(002) or ZPO alone. In the full cells, the performance is greatly improved even under harsh conditions, i.e., high areal capacity and limited Zn resource. This work achieves crystal engineering and surface coating on Zn anodes simultaneously and discloses the in-depth insights about the synergy of crystal orientation and passivation layers.

Lithium niobate is a kind of well-known dielectric materials and its defect microstructures have shown huge impact on acousto-optical, piezoelectric, and electro-optical properties. However, understanding the involved defect structures and...

The Fe3+ ion is the most common impurity ions in potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) and it can combine with hydrogen vacancies to form cluster defects which may lead to optical...

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Lithium niobate (LiNbO3, LN) is a kind of multifunctional crystal material. In this study, an optimum piezoelectric crystal cut (XZt/28°) with central resonance frequency of 150 kHz and stable electro-elastic...