Zincophilic CeO2–modified three-dimensional conductive hierarchical porous carbon network for stable Zn metal anodes

Aqueous Zn metal batteries have demonstrated strong application prospects owing to low cost, enhanced safety and the abundance of Zn resources. However, their large-scale adoption remains constrained due to dendrite formation and side reactions in Zn metal anodes during cycling. In this study, a zincophilic CeO 2 –modified three-dimensional hierarchical porous carbon network on Ti foil (herein referred to as CeO 2 -3D-C@TM) was developed as a host to regulate Zn deposition. The open and interconnected carbon framework with a high specific surface area effectively homogenised the electric field distribution and Zn 2+ flux. Importantly, the uniformly dispersed CeO 2 nanoparticles strengthened the interaction between the host and Zn 2+ , lowering the nucleation energy barrier, inducing homogeneous Zn nucleation and suppressing Zn dendrite growth. Additionally, the weak electrocatalytic activity of the material towards the hydrogen evolution reaction effectively minimised hydrogen production and suppressed side reactions. As expected, the CeO 2 -3D-C@TM electrode exhibited a very low nucleation overpotential of ~40 mV. An assembled half-cell maintained cycling stability for 350 cycles. Furthermore, a CeO 2 -3D-C@TM/Zn symmetric cell achieved stable Zn plating/stripping for >200 h at 3 mA cm −2 . A CeO 2 -3D-C@TM/Zn||NH 4 V 4 O 10 full cell, developed for conceptual verification, exhibited stable cycling performance for 600 cycles.