Research Status and Optimization Methods of Zinc Ion Battery

College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China

Abstract

Up against the energy shortage and aggravating environmental pollution, it is extremely urgent to develop renewable clean energy. With efficient energy storage and energy conversion, electrochemical energy storage is the key direction for the development of energy storage technology in the future. Besides, aqueous zinc ion battery has attracted researchers because of its low cost and high theoretical specific capacity. Cathode materials for aqueous zinc ion batteries are roughly divided into manganese-based compounds, vanadium-based compounds, Prussian blue analogues, etc, which usually use zinc metal as an anode. Electrolytes include solid hydrogel electrolytes and liquid ion electrolytes. However, some problems exist in cathode materials, such as elements dissolution and low discharge voltage, while anode materials have problems in zinc dendrite growth and side reactions, and water decomposition occurs in electrolytes. In recent years, researchers have devoted themselves to optimizing aqueous zinc ion batteries in different ways, so as to obtain their high performance. In this paper, the general situation of zinc ion battery is introduced at first, and then the research status is emphatically expounded from the perspectives of problems existing in cathode materials, anode materials, electrolyte, and their optimization methods, which provides references for developing high-performance aqueous zinc ion battery.