Crystal facet engineering empowers zinc materials with diverse facet orientations: preparation strategies, performance advantages, and application challenges

Abstract

Zinc metal batteries (ZMBs) are promising for electrochemical energy storage due to zinc's high theoretical capacity, low cost, intrinsic safety in aqueous electrolytes, and environmental compatibility, but their practical application is limited by dendrite growth, hydrogen evolution, and corrosion. Crystallographic facet engineering effectively regulates Zn deposition thermodynamics, yet faces challenges including lack of scalable synthesis, facet degradation under harsh conditions, ambiguous additive–facet interactions, activity-stability trade-offs, and unified performance metrics. This review systematically clarifies the structure–performance relationships of dominant Zn facets, benchmarks key preparation methods (heat treatment, mechanical processing, electrodeposition, and laser/chemical etching), and quantifies the electrochemical performance of textured Zn anodes in aqueous electrolytes. It establishes a clear mechanistic chain connecting the facet structure, processing protocols, electrochemical behavior, and full-cell performance, delineating the merits and limitations of facet engineering. The resulting design matrix provides definitive guidance for the precise fabrication of high-performance Zn anodes and offers a transferable framework for optimizing other metal electrodes, advancing the practical development of ZMBs for grid-scale stationary storage and portable electronics.