Highly Reversible Zn Metal Anodes Enabled by Freestanding, Lightweight, and Zincophilic MXene/Nanoporous Oxide Heterostructure Engineered Separator for Flexible Zn-MnO₂ Batteries

Aqueous zinc (Zn)-ion batteries are regarded as promising candidates for large-scale energy storage systems because of their high safety, low cost, and environmental benignity. However, the dendrite issue of Zn anode hinders their practical application. Herein, a freestanding, lightweight, and zincophilic MXene/nanoporous oxide heterostructure engineered separator is designed to stabilize a Zn metal anode. The nanoporous oxides prepared by a one-step vacuum distillation technique afford the advantages of large surface area, high porosity, and homogeneous porous structure. The zincophilic MXene@oxides layer can homogenize the electric field distribution, facilitate ion diffusion kinetics, reduce local current density, and promote even Zn ionic flux, which will regulate uniform Zn deposition and suppress side reactions. Accordingly, dendrite-free Zn anodes with stable cyclability are achieved for over 500 h at an ultrahigh area capacity of 10 mAh cm–2. Besides, flexible, long-lifespan, and high-rate N/S-doped three-dimensional MXene@MnO2||Zn full cells are constructed with the engineered separator. Moreover, this strategy can be successfully extended to lithium, sodium, potassium, and magnesium metal batteries, indicating that separator regulation is a universal approach to overcome the challenges of metal batteries.