Electrolytes speed up development of zinc batteries

Excerpt

Zinc (Zn) batteries have attracted great attention since Zn anode is cost-effective and safe, and also exhibit high capacity and low potential. Much effort has been made to achieve superior battery performance, i.e., structural design of cathodes, optimizing electrolytes, and modification of Zn anode [1‐3]. Zn batteries can apply aqueous electrolytes and non-aqueous electrolytes. However, both of them also suffer from some obstacles in the practical applications. For examples, aqueous Zn batteries face the challenges in the structural stability of cathodes, Zn dendrite growth, and hydrogen evolution at the Zn anode. There are some challenges in rare cathodes, low-voltage of cathodes for organic Zn batteries. Recently, two papers published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition from Wang’s group [1] and Energy Environmental Science from Li’s group [4] reported the new development of electrolytes for improving the performance of Zn batteries. …