Interface engineering with zincophilic MXene for regulated deposition of dendrite-free Zn metal anode

•MX-TMA forms a robust coating on zinc anodes by self-assembly method, with numerous nitrogen-containing groups as zincophilic sites and improved interface hydrophilicity.•MX-TMA coating provides a low nucleation barrier and uniform electric field distribution for zinc anode, which improves the diffusion kinetics of zinc ions at the interface.•MX-TMA can guide the directional and uniform deposition of zinc on the beneficial (002) plane through zincophilic sites and a low lattice matching effect.