Zinc-based batteries have been reliable energy storage device in primary batteries for decades due to their intrinsic safety, resulting from the use of aqueous and non-flammable electrolytes, low cost and high natural abundance of Zinc. For many years, Zinc-based electrodes have been sought as a promising option for secondary batteries, though the cycling performance of Zinc electrodes is still limited by shape change and dendrite formation – especially in alkaline electrolytes.

To address this issue, shape-controlled electrolytic Zinc particles were synthesized. Using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), it was observed that these micron-sized Zinc particles possess preferentially-faceted, hexagonal shape, which allowed us to explore the morphological variation of synthesized well-faceted Zinc particles during corrosion and charge/discharge in alkaline media. It was found that both chemical corrosion and electrochemical discharge of single Zinc particle happens from the basal plane in alkaline media and step-edge planes were more corrosion resistant for an individual Zinc particle. X-ray diffraction patterns showed that by heat-treatment of electrodeposited Zinc particles the degree of crystallinity, and thus, the number step-edge planes were increased which resulted in creation of “terraced” Zinc structures. Higher capacities were achieved during discharge using “terraced” Zinc particles. Such highly faceted particles also led to significantly improved cyclability compared to traditional Zinc structures.