Challenges and Strategies for Constructing Highly Reversible Zinc Anodes in Aqueous Zinc‐Ion Batteries: Recent Progress and Future Perspectives

Abstract

Abstract Aqueous zinc‐ion batteries (AZIBs) have attracted increasing attention as a next‐generation energy storage system because of their inherent safety, high capacity, and cost effectiveness. However, the poor cycling durability and low coulombic efficiency of zinc anodes substantially restrict their further development, which should be attributed to the severe dendrite growth, shape change, surface passivation, self‐corrosion, and byproduct formation across the repeated plating/stripping processes. To address these critical issues, great efforts have been dedicated to the rational design of zinc anodes. In this review, different strategies for the performance improvement of zinc anodes are summarized as well as recent research that boosts their development. These methods include the surface modification, novel host‐anode development for zinc, electrolyte formulation, and separator design. Their respective advantages and defects are compared and discussed in detail. The challenges and further prospects in this field are also addressed. This work is designed to shed light on advanced zinc anode constructions for high‐performance AZIBs assembly.