Progress To date, three primary interface-regulation mechanisms have been developed for Zn anodes in AZIBs: (1) regulating Zn deposition/stripping kinetics, (2) selective orientation growth of crystal planes, and (3) constructing artificial solid electrolyte interface (SEI) layers. The earliest approach, uniform Zn deposition via a 3D porous structure, was first introduced in 2014 by Debra R. Rolison et al. , who created a 3D zinc sponge anode from zinc powder and emulsion. This anode featured a porous, integral， and aperiodic structure. Subsequently, different 3D Zn sponge anodes were introduced into AZIBs with improved cycle stability and safety. However, all these anodes were constrained by connectivity loss in powder-composite electrodes, leading to localized high current density and dendrite formation, as reported by Chamoun et al. using hyper-dendritic nanoporous Zn foam. In 2019, the technique evolved to plated Zn anodes on different substrates. Su et al. introduced holey metal nanotube membranes as high-performance electrode scaffolds for energy storage. Since then, numerous efforts have been made to optimize 3D Zn anodes through SEI engineering, alloying strategies, and 3D printing. A notable achievement was reported by Zhang et al. , where a new type of 3D Zn anode was fabricated by combining 3D printing, chemical deposition, and electrodeposition. More recently, in 2022, Gu et al. designed a surface-engineered forest-like 3D Zn-Cu alloy anode in dual-cation electrolytes, which effectively regulated plating/stripping kinetics and inhibited dendrite growth on the anode surface. Subsequently， the Zn alloys were applied in AZIBs. To simplify the electroplating process, Fan et al. used an alternative 3D Zn-Sn-Pb alloy anode to establish a single Zn metal anode that eliminated both dendritic growth and corrosion reactions.

Conclusions and Prospects The past decade has seen great progress in AZIBs, enabling a range of new applications. Different mechanisms, such as 3D porous structures, surface-coating technologies, and Zn alloying strategies, have been incorporated into the 3D Zn anode design with optimized cycle stability and safety. However, traditional Zn anode systems still suffer from uncontrolled Zn dendrite growth, intensified hydrogen evolution reactions (HER), and corrosion/passivation layer rupture. These issues lead to poor Coulombic efficiency and limited cycle life, particularly due to the non-uniformity of interfacial ion transport at high current densities (>40 mA/cm²) or deep discharge depths (>80% DOD). To address these issues, the development of advanced 3D Zn anodes represents a key research direction in the future. In addition, the volumetric energy density of AZIBs is significantly lower than that of LIBs, necessitating improvements in techniques and design. Beyond structural optimization, in-depth interdisciplinary applications of AZIBs are also a crucial research direction.

Keywords：aqueous Zinc-ion battery; Zinc anode; three-dimensional configuration; dendrite