Opportunities and challenges of zinc anodes in rechargeable aqueous batteries

Abstract

Aqueous rechargeable zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) have recently attracted increasing research interests due to their high safety, low cost, abundant resources, and eco-friendliness compared with commercial lithium-ion batteries. However, problems of zinc anodes in ZIBs such as zinc dendrites and side reactions severely shorten the cycling lifetime and restrict the practical application of ZIBs. In this review, the fundamental understanding of existing issues including dendrite formation, corrosion, and hydrogen evolution are mainly revealed, the current existing strategies on the protection of the zinc electrode and electrolyte engineering in the aqueous electrolyte are discussed. In addition, the existing techniques applied on analyzing the interaction between anodes and electrolytes are summarized. Furthermore, perspectives and suggestions are provided to design highly stable zinc anodes.