Issues and solutions toward zinc anode in aqueous zinc‐ion batteries: A mini review

Abstract

Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) have been intensively investigated as potential energy storage devices on account of their low cost, environmental benignity, and intrinsically safe merits. With the exploitation of highperformance cathode materials, electrolyte systems, and in-depth mechanism investigation, the electrochemical performances of ZIBs have been greatly enhanced. However, there are still some challenges that need to be overcome before its commercialization. Among them, the obstinate dendrites, corrosion, and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) on Zn anodes are critical issues that severely limit the practical applications of ZIBs. To address these issues, various strategies have been proposed, and tremendous progress has been achieved in the past few years. In this article, we analyze the origins and effects of the dendrites, corrosion, and HER on Zn anodes in neutral and mildly acid aqueous solutions at first. And then, a scientific understanding of the fundamental design principles and strategies to suppress these problems are emphasized. Apart from these, this article also puts forward some requirements for the practical applications of Zn anodes as well as several cost-effectivemodifying strategies. Finally, perspectives on the future development of Zn anodes in aqueous solutions are also briefly anticipated. This article provides pertinent insights into the challenges on anodes for the development of highperformance ZIBs, which will greatly contribute to their practical applications. K E Y W O R D S corrosion, hydrogen evolution reaction, Zn anode, Zn dendrites 1 | INTRODUCTION As a result of the ongoing crisis in the depletion of conventional fossil fuels, renewable clean energy sources, such as solar energy, wind energy, hydropower, geothermal, and nuclear energy, are rapidly developing. 1,2 Nevertheless, it remains an extreme challenge to efficiently store the energy generated by those renewable

Three-dimensional porous CoNiO2@reduced graphene oxide nanosheet arrays/nickel foam as a highly efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst for overall water splitting

“…According to the previous reports [45], the high OER activity of CoNiO 2 @ rGO/NF may be due to these active sites (such as NiOOH, CoOOH and CoO 2 ), which are the conversion products in the catalytic process (Eqs. (6) and (7)) as follows:…”

“…The exploitation of renewable and clean energy is significant to solve the severe energy crisis and environmental pollution problems caused by the excessive consumption of fossil fuels [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. Electrochemical water splitting that converts water into H 2 has been considered to be an efficient and promising strategy to meet global energy demands [8,9].…”

Strategies for the Stabilization of Zn Metal Anodes for Zn‐Ion Batteries

“…[ 38 ] Moreover, some organic additives (e.g., PAM) can reduce the nucleation barrier of Zn, benefiting a dense and compact Zn deposition, which protects it from HER and corrosion. [ 61,122 ] Additionally, some organic additives exhibit amphiphilic properties because they have both hydrophilic and hydrophobic functional groups. They tend to absorbed on the surface of the anode to obtain low interface energy, exposing the hydrophobic functional groups to prevent the contact between water and the anode.…”

Comprehensive Analyses of Aqueous Zn Metal Batteries: Characterization Methods, Simulations, and Theoretical Calculations

“…Currently, for AZMBs, the challenges, strategies, current status, and future directions have been well summarized, suggested, and proposed in many reviews. [ 1,19,25,41,45,70–77 ] However, there are few systematic introductions to characterization techniques, simulations, and calculations, although these methods are also of great significance to the development of AZMBs. Numerous characterization methods can comprehensively analyze the Zn anode on the basis of the electronic structure, chemical composition, morphological structure, crystallinity, electrochemical evaluation, and the relationship between these methods and time dependence; simulations and calculations can be performed to make reasonable predictions or provide explanations at atomic level regarding the failure mechanism of the Zn anode and the effectiveness of protection strategies.…”