Stabilizing Interfacial Kinetics by Fluorine-Functionalized and Zn (002)-Exposed Nanoarrays Enables Robust Zn Metal Anodes

The deployment of aqueous zinc metal batteries (AZMBs) is still hindered by unstable interfacial kinetics of Zn metal anodes, resulting in uncontrolled dendrite growth and parasitic side reactions at the Zn/electrolyte interface. Herein, we develop an in situ strategy to construct fluorine-functionalized nanoarrays on a Zn anode with preferential Zn (002) texture exposure (F-Zn) to address these issues. The results demonstrate that the multifunctional Zn anode integrates several key advantages: fluorine functionalization imparts zincophilic characteristics that homogenize Zn 2+ nucleation and stable interfacial kinetics, The nanoarray interface facilitates electrolyte wettability and accelerates interfacial Zn 2+ flux; meanwhile, the dominant Zn (002) crystallographic texture induces uniform Zn deposition and enhances corrosion resistance. As expected, the F-Zn anode exhibits a low nucleation overpotential and enables symmetric cells to operate stably for over 3100 h at 1 mA cm –2 @1 mAh cm –2 and over 1000 h at 4 mA cm –2 @1 mAh cm –2 . Moreover, when coupled with an activated carbon (AC) cathode, the F-Zn||AC delivers exceptional rate capability and maintains approximately 99.2% capacity retention after 10,000 cycles at 4.0 A g –1 . This work presents an effective strategy integrating crystallographic engineering with surface functionalization for high-performance Zn anodes toward advanced AZMBs.