Search

Zn metal anode suffers from dendrite growth and side reactions during cycling, significantly deteriorating the lifespan of aqueous Zn metal batteries. Herein, we introduced an ultrathin and ultra‐flat Sb2O3 molecular crystal layer to stabilize Zn anode. The in situ optical and atomic force microscopes observations show that such a 10 nm Sb2O3 thin layer could ensure uniform under‐layer Zn deposition with suppressed tip growth effect, while the traditional WO3 layer undergoes an uncontrolled up‐layer Zn deposition. The superior regulation capability is attributed to the good electronic‐blocking ability and low Zn affinity of the molecular crystal layer, free of dangling bonds. Electrochemical tests exhibit Sb2O3 layer can significantly improve the cycle life of Zn anode from 72 h to 2800 h, in contrast to the 900 h of much thicker WO3 even in 100 nm. This research opens up the application of inorganic molecular crystals as the interfacial layer of Zn anode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The monoclinic GeP with large capacity, low plateau, and high initial coulombic efficiency (ICE) has been proved to be alternative anode for Li‐ion batteries. However, the heavy use of Ge raw material with its high price, hinders its further development. Herein, the Zn atom is proposed for substitution into GeP and replaces part of the Ge owing to its low price, suitable plateau, and similar radius. Interestingly, a novel Ge1−xZnxP solid solution with a wide range tunable region (0.143 < x < 0.6) is achieved, reducing the heavy use of Ge and cutting the GeP price down. More intriguingly, such Ge1−xZnxP possesses a new phase, different from monoclinic GeP, which is first verified to be a cubic system in F‐43m. Compared to semi‐conducting GeP, this cubic Ge1−xZnxP phase possesses metallic conductivity, thus enabling a better rate performance than monoclinic GeP (e.g., 881 vs 283 mAh g−1 at 2000 mA g−1), while keeping the great advantages of large capacity, low plateau, and high ICE of GeP as well. Consequently, the assembled LiCoO2//Ge1−xZnxP full cell exhibits large capacity over 1000 mAh g−1. This unique phase control strategy by atomic substitution can be easily extended to manipulate electrochemical behaviors of other multi‐phase materials toward advanced energy storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]