Electrolyte additives toward practical aqueous zinc-ion batteries: recent advances and future challenges

Rechargeable aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) have attracted interest in serving as large-scale electrochemical energy storage devices because of their high energy storage capacity, low cost, outstanding operational safety, and superior environmental friendliness. In the past two decades, enormous efforts have been devoted to all components of AZIBs, including cathode materials, Zn anodes, and electrolytes. This brief review first outlines the challenges of realizing practical ZIBs for cathodes, anodes, and electrolytes. Then, we focus on recent representative and promising electrolyte addictive studies. We further present our perspectives on critical issues to be addressed to enable practical AZIBs.