Regulating Zinc Deposition via Zincophilic 2D-Cu₂Te as the Current Collector to Suppress Dendrite Formation toward High Performance Aqueous Zinc-Ion Batteries

In this study, we synthesized standing 2D δ-Cu₂Te flakes (δ-CTFs) via a facile post-tellurization process, which served as the current collector to accommodate zinc (Zn) for AZIBs. These flakes exhibited low nucleation overpotential and low interfacial impedance, facilitating the plating/stripping of Zn ions. Interestingly, the hydrophilicity and standing structure of δ-CTFs guided the electrodeposited Zn to laterally grow on the surface of δ-CTFs, effectively suppressing Zn dendrite formation. The Zn@δ-CTFs anode exhibited a long-term cycling duration of 510 hours in a symmetric cell, which is far superior to previous reports. Even under high current density of 10 mA cm⁻², the anode was able to perform stably with a cycle life of 110 hours. The machine learning model was exploited to predict the effective charge value, discovering that Zn migrated in Cu₂Te were subject to the larger driving force of migration under applied field. Finally, the Zn@δ-CTFs//MnO₂ full battery exhibited excellent rate-dependent capacity and maintained a capacity of 100 mAh g⁻¹ after 1000 cycles at a current density of 1 A g⁻¹, without Zn dendrite formation. This research provides a new strategy for regulating Zn deposition to address dendrite issues toward long lifespan AZIBs.