Controllable and large-area growth of ZnO nanosheet arrays under ambient condition as superior anodes for scalable aqueous batteries

Two-dimensional(2D)oxides have been the focus of substantial research interest recently,owing to their fascinating physico-chemical properties.However,fabrication of large-area 2D oxide materials in a controlled manner under mild conditions still remains a formidable challenge.Herein,we develop a facile and universal strategy based on the sonochemistry approach for controllable and large-area growth of quasi-aligned single-crystalline ZnO nanosheets on a Zn substrate(Zn@SC-ZnO)under ambient conditions.The obtained ZnO nanosheets possess the desired exclusively exposed(001)facets,which have been confirmed to play a critical role in significantly reducing the activation energy and facilitating the stripping/plating processes of Zn.Accordingly,the constructed Zn@SC-ZnO||Zn@SC-ZnO symmetric cell has very low polarization overpotential down to~20 mV,with limited dendrite growth and side reactions for Zn anodes.The developed Zn@SC-ZnO//MnO_(2)aqueous Zn-ion batteries(ZIBs)show a voltage efficiency of 88.2%under 500 mA g^(-1)at the stage of 50%depth of discharge,which is state of the art for ZIBs reported to date.Furthermore,the as-assembled large-size cell(5 cm×5 cm)delivers an open circuit potential of 1.648 V,and can be robustly operated under a high current of 20 mA,showing excellent potential for future scalable applications.