Lee, Hyunsoo Nam, Donghyeon Moon, Chaehyeon Park, Jinseok Lee, Michael J. Kim, Keun Hee Han, Hyeonsoo Roh, Donghyeok Kim, Kyungmo Choi, Jaeyoung Lee, Seung Woo Kim, Byung-Hyun Lee, Young Jun Kim, Bumjoon J. 2026-02-19T07:30:30Z 2026-02-19T07:30:30Z 2026-02-19 2026-02 1385-8947 https://pubs.kist.re.kr/handle/201004/154336 Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) have seen substantial progress, motivated by the increasing emphasis on environmentally benign and intrinsically safe energy storage solutions. However, Zn dendrite formation remains a significant challenge, leading to rapid capacity decay, low Coulombic efficiency (CE), and internal short circuits. Herein, we present three-dimensional (3D) channeled-porous carbon particles decorated with Co nanoparticles (CPC-Co) as a highly reversible Zn host to address these challenges. The incorporation of zincophilic Co nanoparticles effectively reduces the nucleation overpotential, promoting uniform Zn deposition, while the 3D channeled-porous carbon framework accommodates volume changes during Zn plating/stripping. As a result, the CPC-Co electrode enables stable Zn plating/stripping for over 830 cycles at 2 mA cm−2, with an average CE of 99.1%. Even at higher current densities of 6 and 10 mA cm−2, the electrode maintains extended cycling stability for 635 and 100 cycles, respectively. Density functional theory calculations further suggest that the Co nanoparticles act as effective zincophilic sites for achieving consistent Zn nucleation. Consequently, a full cell incorporating the Zn@CPC-Co anode and V2O5 cathode exhibits excellent cycling stability over 6000 cycles at 1 A g−1. English Elsevier BV 3D channeled porous carbon hosts with cobalt nanoparticle-induced zincophilicity for stable zinc anodes Article 10.1016/j.cej.2026.172613 1 Chemical Engineering Journal, v.529 Chemical Engineering Journal 529 N scie scopus 001668496800001 2-s2.0-105027266948 Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Chemical Engineering Article POLYSTYRENE EFFICIENCY SPHERES Channeled-porous carbon Block copolymer particle Zinc host Zinc metal anode Zinc-ion batteries