Football-like ZnO@TiC as the active material of zinc anode with excellent structural stability and long cycling performance

•TiC provides a stable structure for suppressing electrode deformation and ZnO agglomeration.•The ZnO@TiC anode is able to maintain ultra-long and stable cycling performance at high rates.•The average discharge specific capacity of this work can attain 550 mAh·g−1. Alkaline zinc-nickel batteries are not properly exploited for their high-current charge and discharge characteristics that are caused by the corrosion, deformation and poor conductivity of zinc oxide for the anode. In this work, we synthesize a ZnO@TiC composite with a football-like structure. The incorporation of TiC enables the better electrical conductivity and structural stability, which reduces the agglomeration of active materials and the deformation of the electrode. Simultaneously, the discharge specific capacity of ZnO@TiC electrode reaches 520 mAh·g−1 after 1500 cycles at 6C, with a capacity retention rate of 94.5 %. Subsequently, the TiC has been introduced as an additive to the anode to test the performance in commercial 2 A zinc-nickel batteries. The results demonstrate that a moderate amount of TiC can extend the cycle life of the battery by about 50 %. This work provides a novel idea for the protection of zinc-nickel battery anodes.