Themed collection 2025 Journal of Materials Chemistry Lectureship winner: Guanjie He

The payback period is a critical indicator when adopting energy storage systems. When developing optimization strategies for emerging energy storage technologies such as aqueous zinc-ion batteries, their economic feasibility should be considered.

This mini review summarizes the recent progress of Zn–V static battery and Zn–V redox flow battery. Mechanisms, classification and structures, problems and modification strategies are discussed for future developments of these batteries.

This review highlights interfacial strategies to accelerate Zn²⁺ transport and desolvation in aqueous zinc-ion batteries, and explores water dissociation pathways that unlock proton and hydroxide storage for next-generation energy storage.

This review summarizes the fundamental understanding of issues and strategies on the zinc anode. The electrolyte engineering is discussed. Techniques applied on analysing the interaction between anodes and electrolytes are summarized.

NH₄F is reported as an effective electrolyte additive to realize high-performance zinc electrodeposition in aqueous electrolytes.

Amorphous anion skeletons of zeolite-like Na₂Zn₂(TeO₃)₃ induce rapid and cation-selective ion flux towards stable aqueous zinc–iodine batteries.

High-entropy engineering is applied to NASICON-type cathodes to overcome long-standing trade-offs between structural stability and electrochemical performance, enabling high capacity, exceptional rate capability, and long-term cycling durability.

Ultrathin cellulose-based electrolytes (DCG, 10 μm) with a gradient hydropenic interface were designed to minimize side reactions and guide (002) textured deposition. DCG enhanced flexible Zn batteries to 222 W h kg⁻¹ and 214.3 W h L⁻¹.

The proposed cathode, achieved by a cost-effective and scalable coating process, highlights the potential of simultaneously promoting surface reactivity while ensuring bulk stability for efficient high mass loading cathodes in zinc-ion batteries.

This research reports the presence of a synergistic effect among vacancies, lattice water and nickel ions on enhancing the hydrated protons hopping via the Grotthuss mechanism for high performance zinc ion battery cathodes.

CoFeNi/Z-P NC with hollow structure achieves a current density of 10 mA cm⁻² with an overpotential of only 244 mV and good long-term stability of up to 10 h.

Phosphorus-modified Pt@Cu (Pt/P@Cu) was fabricated through a one-step method as a self-standing electrocatalyst, leading to increased surface activity sites, reduced charge transfer resistance and enhanced HER performance in neutral medium.

A bifunctional electrolyte was developed for aqueous zinc-ion batteries, which embeds impact resistance in the aqueous electrolyte and maintains a high-performance for full batteries.