Recent Progress on Zn Anodes for Advanced Aqueous Zinc‐Ion Batteries

Abstract

Aqueous Zn‐ion batteries (AZIBs) have attracted much attention due to their excellent safety, cost‐effectiveness, and eco‐friendliness thereby being considered as one of the most promising candidates for large‐scale energy storage. Zn metal anodes with a high gravimetric/volumetric capacity are indispensable for advanced AZIBs. However, pristine Zn metal anodes encounter severe challenges in achieving adequate cycling stability, including dendrite growth, hydrogen evolution reaction, self‐corrosion, and by‐product formation. Because all these reactions are closely related to the electrolyte/Zn interface, the subtle interface engineering is important. Many strategies targeted to the interface engineering have been developed. In this review, a timely update on these strategies and perspectives are summarized, especially focusing on the controllable synthesis of Zn, Zn surface engineering, electrolyte formulation, and separator design. Furthermore, the corresponding internal principles of these strategies are clarified, which is helpful to help seek for new strategies. Finally, the challenges and perspectives for the future development of practical AZIBs are discussed, including the conducting of in advanced in situ testing, unification of battery models, some boundary issues, etc. This review is expected to guide the future development and provi beacon light direction for aqueous zinc ion batteries.

Solvation structure regulation of an organic small molecule additive for dendrite-free aqueous zinc-ion batteries

“…While these methods provide new insights into zinc metal protection, they are difficult to implement from the perspective of manufacturing process and production cost. 22 Considering the above difficulties, it would be more practical to explore suitable electrolyte additives to inhibit the formation of dendrites and to improve the reversibility of the Zn anode. 23–26 Currently, the commonly used electrolyte additives for aqueous zinc-ion batteries can be categorized into four types, including ionic, organic, inorganic, and metallic additives.…”

Advancements in aqueous zinc–iodine batteries: a review

“…Aqueous zinc-based batteries are considered to be one of the most promising systems owing to the abundance of zinc resources and the non-combustible nature of water combined with the high theoretical capacity (820 mA h g −1 , 5855 mA h cm −3 ), low electrode potential (−0.76 V versus standard hydrogen electrode (SHE)), and air stability of Zn. 3–8 In recent years, aqueous zinc-based secondary batteries have been significantly developed; however, it is difficult to match them with suitable cathodes. Instances abound where commonly employed cathodes such as MnO 2 (ref.…”

Optimizing ammonium vanadate crystal structure by facile in situ phase transformation of VO2/NH4V4O10 with special micro–nano feature for advanced aqueous zinc ion batteries

“…The excellent stability of pure zinc foil in aqueous solution further guarantees that it can be directly used as the cathode to assemble aqueous zinc ion batteries. [11][12][13] In addition, aqueous electrolytes, such as zinc sulfate and zinc trifluoromethane sulfonate, not only possess faster ion diffusion speed but also avoid spontaneous battery combustion. In the future, the exploration and research on suitable positive materials has gradually become an important issue for the development and application of AZIBs.…”