21:T444,Aqueous zinc batteries are appealing devices for cost-effective and environmentally sustainable energy storage. However, the zinc metal deposition at the anode strongly influences the battery cycle life and performance. To circumvent this issue, here we propose the use of lanthanum nitrate (La(NO₃)₃) as supporting salt for aqueous zinc sulfate (ZnSO₄) electrolyte solutions. Via physicochemical and electrochemical characterizations, we demonstrate that this peculiar electrolyte formulation weakens the electric double layer repulsive force, thus, favouring dense metallic zinc deposits and regulating the charge distribution at the zinc metal|electrolyte interface. When tested in Zn||VS₂ full coin cell configuration (with cathode mass loading of 16 mg cm^-2), the electrolyte solution containing the lanthanum ions enables almost 1000 cycles at 1 A g^-1 (after 5 activation cycles at 0.05 A g^-1) with a stable discharge capacity of about 90 mAh g^-1 and an average cell discharge voltage of ∼0.54 V.22:T468,The reversibility of metal anode is a fundamental challenge to the lifetime of rechargeable batteries. Though being widely employed in aqueous energy storage systems, metallic zinc suffers from dendrite formation that severely hinders its applications. Here we report texturing Zn as an effective way to address the issue of zinc dendrite. An in-plane oriented Zn texture with preferentially exposed (002) basal plane is demonstrated via a sulfonate anion-induced electrodeposition, noting no solid report on (002) textured Zn till now. Anion-induced reconstruction of zinc coordination is revealed to be responsible for the texture formation. Benchmarking against its (101) textured-counterpart by the conventional sulphate-based electrolyte, the Zn (002) texture enables highly reversible stripping/plating at a high current density of 10 mA cm^-2 , showing its dendrite-free characteristics. The Zn (002) texture-based aqueous zinc battery exhibits excellent cycling stability. The developed anion texturing approach provides a pathway towards exploring zinc chemistry and prospering aqueous rechargeable batteries.23:T51e,Although aqueous Zn batteries have become a more sustainable alternative to lithium-ion batteries owing to their intrinsic security, their practical applications are limited by dendrite formation and hydrogen reactions. The first application of a rare earth metal type addition to Zn batteries, cerium chloride (CeCl₃ ), as an effective, low-cost, and green electrolyte additive that facilitates the formation of a dynamic electrostatic shielding layer around the Zn protuberance to induce uniform Zn deposition is presented. After introducing CeCl₃ additives, the electrochemical characterizations, in situ optical microscopy observation, in situ differential electrochemical mass spectrometry, along with density functional theory calculations, and finite element method simulations reveal resisted Zn dendritic growth and enhanced electrolyte stability. As a result, the Zn-Zn cells using the CeCl₃ additive exhibit a long cycling stability of 2600 h at 2 mA cm^-2 , an impressive cumulative areal capacity of 3.6 Ah cm^-2 at 40 mA cm^-2 , and a high Coulombic efficiency of ≈99.7%. The fact that the Zn-LiFePO₄ cells with proposed electrolyte retain capacity significantly better than the additive-free case is even more exciting.

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