Active Screen Plasma-Enabled\nMetal Alloying for Stable\nZinc Metal Growth toward Aqueous Zinc-Ion Batteries

Abstract

Active-screen plasma (ASP) has attracted much attention\nas a versatile\nand powerful surface engineering method owing to its simple setup,\nlow temperature, eco-friendliness, treatment uniformity, ability to\ndeposit nano/microparticles with sputtering targets, and capability\nfor controlling the chemical composition and morphology of the deposition\nlayer. Recent investigations have shown that ASP technology has been\nused to treat various electrode materials for excellent electrochemical\nperformance. This work demonstrates the feasibility of ASP technology\nto construct an artificial alloy layer on host materials and serve\nas promising Zn anode supports. We reveal the effect of some controllable\nor measurable variables on the formed alloy layer and discuss the\ncore process of ASP-enabled metal alloying. Attractively, a stable\nand uniform Cu₅Zn₈ alloy layer with good zincophilic\ncan effectively reduce the energy barrier of Zn nucleation and guide\nuniform Zn nucleation, which alleviates the dendritic growth during\nZn deposition. Consequently, the Cu₅Zn₈-modified\nCu host as the Zn anode support displays a high Coulombic efficiency\nof 99.5%, a lower overpotential of 45 mV, and a longer cycling life\nover 330 h. The assembled full cells deliver an exceptional capacity\nof 114 mA h g^–1 after 500 cycles with a capacity\nretention of 68%. This work provides an idea for constructing a stable\nZn deposition interface and promotes the development of ASP technology.