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 large-area 2D oxide materials in a controlled manner under mild conditions still remains formidable challenge. Herein, we develop facile and universal strategy based on sonochemistry approach for controllable growth quasi-aligned single-crystalline ZnO nanosheets Zn substrate ([email protected]) ambient conditions. The obtained possess desired exclusively exposed (00 1 ¯ $\mathop{1}\limits^{̅}$ ) facets, which confirmed play critical role significantly reducing activation energy facilitating stripping/plating processes Zn. Accordingly, constructed [email protected]||[email protected] symmetric cell has very low polarization overpotential down ~20 mV, with limited dendrite side reactions anodes. developed protected]//MnO2 aqueous Zn-ion batteries (ZIBs) show voltage efficiency 88.2% 500 mA g−1 at stage 50% depth discharge, is state art ZIBs reported date. Furthermore, as-assembled large-size (5 cm × 5 cm) delivers an open circuit potential 1.648 V, can be robustly operated high current 20 mA, showing excellent future scalable applications.