Coupling zincophilic Sb-Nx single-atom sites with hydrophobic interfacial engineering for dendrite-free and corrosion-resistant Zn anodes

Uncontrolled dendrite growth and water-induced parasitic reactions severely limit the reversibility of Zn metal anodes in aqueous batteries. Herein, we report a multifunctional interfacial layer featuring atomically dispersed antimony sites coordinated with nitrogen (Sb-N x ) embedded in a mesoporous carbon matrix, which enables synergistic regulation of Zn nucleation and interfacial wettability. X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) confirms the formation of isolated Sb-N x sites that act as zincophilic nucleation centers, markedly reducing the Zn nucleation overpotential from 115.5 mV to 29.8 mV. Meanwhile, the hierarchical porous architecture facilitates rapid Zn 2+ transport, yielding a Zn 2+ transference number of 0.82, while the hydrophobic interface (contact angle of 154.6°) effectively suppresses hydrogen evolution and corrosion reactions. Benefiting from these combined effects, the Sb-N x C@Zn anode delivers a high average Coulombic efficiency of 99.23% over 2000 cycles in Zn||Cu cells and exhibits stable Zn plating/stripping for 1800 h in Zn||Zn symmetric cells. When assembled into a rechargeable zinc-air battery, the protected Zn anode achieves a peak power density of 544 mW cm -2 and enables long-term dendrite-free cycling for 1800 h. This work demonstrates that integrating zincophilic single-atom sites with hydrophobic interfacial regulation provides an effective strategy for realizing highly reversible aqueous Zn metal anodes.