Abstract
The world’s mounting demands for environmentally benign and efficient resource utilization have spurred investigations into intrinsically green and safe energy storage systems. As one of the most promising types of batteries, the Zn battery family, with a long research history in the human electrochemical power supply, has been revived and reevaluated in recent years. Although Zn anodes still lack mature and reliable solutions to support the satisfactory cyclability required for the current versatile applications, many new concepts with optimized Zn/Zn2+ redox processes have inspired new hopes for rechargeable Zn batteries. In this review, we present a critical overview of the latest advances that could have a pivotal role in addressing the bottlenecks (e.g., nonuniform deposition, parasitic side reactions) encountered with Zn anodes, especially at the electrolyte-electrode interface. The focus is on research activities towards electrolyte modulation, artificial interphase engineering, and electrode structure design. Moreover, challenges and perspectives of rechargeable Zn batteries for further development in electrochemical energy storage applications are discussed. The reviewed surface/interface issues also provide lessons for the research of other multivalent battery chemistries with low-efficiency plating and stripping of the metal.
Highlights
With climate warming caused by burning fossil fuels, highly efficient energy storage systems, secondary batteries, used for storing intermittent energy from sustainable resources have gained worldwide attention and are bound to increase in demand
We focus on recent progress in achieving homogenous Zn deposition and side-reaction suppression with an emphasis on electrolyte modulation, artificial interphase engineering, and electrode structure design
We present perspectives on the current limitations and attempt to point out future research directions to overcome challenges on the way to utilizing Zn anodes in rechargeable systems
Summary
Another strategy to alleviate Zn dendrite growth and H2 evolution relies on utilizing nonaqueous electrolytes consisting of Zn salts and organic solvents. Han et al.[12] compared the electrochemical properties of several nonaqueous Zn electrolytes including diglyme-Zn(TFSI)[2], acetonitrile-Zn(CF3SO3)[2], and propylene carbonate-Zn (TFSI)[2] electrolytes. They verified that the CE of Zn deposition/dissolution generally exceeded 99% because of the high (electro)chemical stability of metallic Zn in these organic solvents (Fig. 3). Given the high charge density of Zn2+ ions, polar aprotic solvents, which are commonly used in nonaqueous electrochemistry, such as carbonates and lactones, cannot disassociate routine Zn salts. This situation tremendously hinders the number of viable salts that can be used for nonaqueous ZBs
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
