Carbon NanoFiber-Integrated VN@CNS Multilevel Architectures for High-Performance Zinc-Ion Batteries

Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) have attracted considerable attention due to their intrinsic safety, low cost, and environmental friendliness. However, drastic volume expansion, sluggish reaction kinetics, and the insufficient structural stability of electrode materials still remain key challenges. In this work, a cascade structure-guided electron transport strategy was used to construct a vanadium nitride@carbon nanosheet/carbon nanofiber (VN@CNS/CNF) composite as a high-performance cathode for AZIBs. In this rationally engineered architecture, carbon-coated VN nanoparticles are uniformly anchored on a conductive carbon nanofiber network, forming a multidimensional interconnected structure that enables fast electron/ion transport and robust mechanical stability. The carbon shell effectively alleviates volume expansion and prevents VN nanoparticle agglomeration, while the continuous carbon fiber backbone reduces charge transfer resistance and enhances reaction kinetics. Benefiting from this synergistic structural design, the VN@CNS/CNF electrode delivers a high specific capacity of 564 mAh g^-1 at 0.1 A g^-1, maintains 99% capacity retention after 50 cycles, and retains 280 mAh g^-1 even at 8 A g^-1 after prolonged cycling. This study provides a new structural engineering strategy for vanadium nitride-based electrodes and provides strategic guidance for the development of fast-charging, durable aqueous zinc-ion batteries.