Pathways towards High‐Performance Aqueous Zinc‐Organic Batteries

Solid-electrolyte interphases (SEIs) are essential for stabilizing metal anodes in aqueous zinc (Zn) batteries (AZBs), yet their formation remains intrinsically uncontrolled, leaving the interphase vulnerable to dissolution and water-driven parasitic reactions. Herein, we report an electron-induced molecular programming strategy that uses only 1mM of 4-bromobenzenediazonium tetrafluoroborate (BDTF) to in situ construct a Zn2+-favored molecular lock on the ZnF2-rich SEI surface. Electrochemically generated p-bromoaniline becomes molecularly woven into the inorganic layer, forming an ultrathin molecular-lock shell (∼1nm) atop a graded hybrid SEI. Through N-Zn coordination coupled with Br-induced interfacial polarization, the molecular lock reorganizes the local electrostatic environment, stabilizes ZnF2, limits water access, and promotes desolvation-facilitated Zn2+ transport. As a result, the programmed SEI enables highly reversible Zn plating/stripping with a 99.8% average Coulombic efficiency, and stable cycling under 80% depth of discharge at 10mA cm- 2. Moreover, it displays broad cathode compatibility, extending cycling stability in vanadium-, manganese-, and iodine-based full cells. In Ah-level pouch cells with ultrahigh vanadium-based cathode loading (21mg cm-2), the system delivers 1.2 Ah with 81% retention after 100 cycles, surpassing state-of-the-art aqueous Zn batteries that typically fail at high mass loading.

Given their intrinsic safety, low cost, and high energy density, aqueous zinc (Zn) batteries hold substantial promise in large-scale energy storage applications. However, Zn dendrite formation and serious side reactions in metallic Zn anodes significantly compromise the reversibility of electrochemical Zn plating/stripping, restricting their lifespan and practical applications. Herein, we demonstrate that the polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) coated Zn anode can alleviate those issues. The PVA molecules at the Zn anode/electrolyte interface enable homogeneous Zn plating/stripping behavior by regulating the nucleation and ion diffusion barriers and effectively suppress the corrosion and hydrogen evolution reaction in mildly acidic electrolytes. As a result, a highly reversible and dendrite-free Zn anode can be obtained. The content of PVA plays a critical role in governing the cycling lifetime and stability. With the optimized content of PVA, stable Zn plating/stripping with a cycling capacity of 1 mAh cm-2 over 1500 hours has been achieved at 1 mA cm-2. In contrast, the bare Zn anode showed an unstable plating/stripping behavior with obvious polarization and limited cycling lifetime. Even at a high current density of 5 mA cm-2, the PVA-coated Zn anode remained stable for 1000 cycles. The present work provides a promising strategy to stabilize Zn anodes towards long-lifespan, cost-effective, and scalable aqueous rechargeable zinc-based batteries.

The World's energy consumption has increased drastically over the past several decades, particularly driven by increasing population and economic activities as well as rising living standards with technological advancements. Since the industrial revolution, fossil fuels have been the major source of energy productions, which is today shown as the primary cause of the ongoing climate change and associated environmental challenges in threatening the existence of many living species and human life and comfort. According to the statistics provided by International Energy Agency (IEA),1 the global energy supply was 14 282 Mtoe in 2018 that is 115% higher than that of the value for 1973. Fossil fuels, such as natural gas, coal and oil are still playing a critical role and covering more than 80% of global energy demands. The concerns associated with global warming and depletion of energy sources have been directing the attention to renewable and environmentally-benign energy solutions. However, efficient, affordable, and nature-friendly energy storage systems are the key to using renewable energy sources effectively. In this study, a comprehensive literature search is conducted to study and bibliografically evalute Canada's energy storage research and development activities over the last five decades. The present study intends to present the cumulative picture on energy storage reseach and development efforts and assess how universities, research institutes and funding agencies have contributed to this particular field. The literature search compiles a total of fifty-year data on energy storage-related research and development activities conducted in Canada. The number of conducted studies associated with energy storage regarding research articles, books, research projects, dissertations, and patents is presented in the period from 1971 to 2021. Furthermore, the Canadian institutes are ranked based on their scholarly ouputs and publications to indicate the most productive ones in the field of energy storage based on the data presented in the literature sources. Energy storage is described as the capture of harvested energy for later use to maintain the balance fluctuations between energy demand and supply. As the world moves towards a low-carbon economy, energy storage systems are exepcted to even play a more critical role in extracting more energy from renewable resources.10 The intermittent characteristic of renewable resources, specifically solar and wind, is one of the major challenges ahead of a reliable and steady renewable energy supply. This can be avoided by storing excess energy to re-use when the renewable resources are not sufficient or unavailable. Energy storage systems can be categorized in different ways in regards to the form of converted and stored energy. Figure 1 presents an overview of energy storage system categories which are considered in this study. It is important to note that chemical energy storage allows to storage and transportation of large amounts of energy for long distances with minimal self-discharge rates, which is crucial for the distribution and effective use of renewable energy resources. Figure 2 presents the energy density of various chemical fuels and batteries. Despite possessing high energy density, environmental concerns associated with the production and consumption of fossil-based chemical fuels, e.g. diesel, gasoline or natural gas, should be adrressed. In regards to nature-friendly chemical energy storage, particularly power-to-gas chemical storage, hydrogen is attracting favorable attention nowadays. In this regard, hydrogen appears to be the lightest and most abundant chemical element in the universe, but is not available freely (by itself). However, it occurs naturally within a compound such as water (H2O); therefore, it is an intermediate energy form. Excess electricity from renewables can be utilized in hydrogen production processes, i.e. electrolysis of water, to store energy in chemical form. Power-to-hydrogen chemical energy storage is a unique and clean method, and it can be compatible with electrochemical storage since hydrogen possesses much greater energy content. One of the major challenges with hydrogen is the low calorific value per unit of volume (MJ/m3) due to its low density. This can be avoided by deploying alternative hydrogen carriers, such as ammonia. Liquefaction at atmospheric conditions, high hydrogen atom content and high energy density characteristics make ammonia a favorable medium for storage and transportation of energy. It is further to note that batteries and capacitors are devices allowing electrochemical storage of electricity. The potential energy is stored in chemical form in batteries, while capacitors are expected to store their potential energy in the form of an electric field.14 Batteries are thus most commonly used and matured options that propose high energy densities and voltages. Lithium-ion (Li-ion), sodium-sulphur (NaS), nickel-cadmium (NiCd), lead acid (Pb-acid), lead-carbon batteries, zebra batteries (Na-NiCl2) and flow batteries are the existing battery types used in various applications. Due to their high specific energy (per unit weight) and high specific energy (per unit volume), lithium batteries attract considerable attention in electrical energy storage. Capacitors can be classified as electrostatic capacitors, electrolytic capacitors, and electrochemical capacitors, among which electrochemical, so-called supercapacitors, promote the highest capacitance per unit of volume owing to a porous structure 15. As a mechanical energy storage method, pumped hydro accounts for more than 95% of the global installed energy storage capacity.15 The main advantage of mechanical energy storage is to readily deliver energy. The method is easy to adapt for conversion and storage of energy from various sourcessuch as water current, wave, or tidal. Pumped hydro, compressed air, and flywheel are the commonly practiced mechanical energy storage methods. Pumped hydro and compressed air are bound to specific geographical characteristics, which is the main restriction for the implementation of these energy storage methods. A flywheel stores the energy obtained from a rotor mass spinning at very high speeds as kinetic energy. The stored kinetic energy can be later used to produce electricity by altering the angular velocity of the flywheel through a decelerating torque and using an electric motor in reverse 16. Despite of being non-suitable for long-term energy storage, flywheels offer favorable advantages, that is, long-life spin, high energy densities and low maintenance costs, and fast charging.17 Thermal energy storage (TES) systems are effective systems to store heat in a reservoir for a period of time (defined or undefined) for later use, that is, space heating and cooling, electricity production, hot water. If the reservoir temperature is kept under the atmospheric temperature, the storage process is called cold thermal energy storage.18 Operating temperature range, capacity requirements, charging and discharging requirements are some of important parameters when choosing an appropriate TES system for a desired application. Since the major proportion of produced and consumed energy is heat around the world, TES systems carries a significant weight regarding the development of effective energy systems . Furthermore, energy losses from the systems commonly occur in the form of heat. Decreasing losses via further utilizing from waste energy is one of many way to mitigate environmental impacts, which can be accomplished by implementing TES systems in a cost effective manner. In the current study, an overview of Canada's energy storage related studies from 1971 to 2021 is presented. The scope of this study is to present the contributions of Canadian universities, research institutes and funders to energy storage research and development efforts over the last five decades. The keywords and methodology that are used for the literature search are depicted in Figure 3. The collected and compiled data for the corresponding fields are presented in figures, and results are discussed in the following sections. In this study, an online literature search is conducted on Canada's energy storage related studies over the last five decades. The current section presents collected and compiled data in charts. The findings of the conducted study are discussed in detail. The most productive institutes of Canada regarding conducting or sponsoring energy storage-related studies are presented. The documents associated with energy storage in all subject areas are presented in Figure 4. In this regard, the highest number of energy storage-related studies were conducted in the subject area of engineering in Canada from 1971 to 2021. The fields of energy and chemistry appear as the other two major subject areas in which high number of energy storage research was conducted. While compiling data, attention has been paid to any potential field conflicts concerning the multi attribution of interdisciplinary publications. Therefore, it should be noticed that chemistry may have an impact on the subject areas of biochemistry, genetics, and molecular biology. The same impact of engineering could be seen on the subject area of energy. The data collected and analysed for comparative evaluation reveals that the Canadian institutes have produced 37 386 energy storage-related academic research publications over the last 50-year period. In this regard, Figure 5A presents the breakdown of energy storage-related publications affiliated to Canada in the corresponding material types in accordance with the publication years. Figure 5A shows that studies in this field consistently increases every year. Consequently, the year 2020 appears as the most productive one in this regard as of April 2021. In the light of this trendline, predicting that the year 2021 will be more productive than 2020 would not be wrong. Figure 5B has been prepared as a heat map to show Canada's provinces where energy storage-related studies were conducted over the last 50 years. In this regard, Ontario appears as the most productive province of Canada in terms of scholarly publications. However, one has to keep in mind that Ontario has the highest number of contributing institutes/universities compared to the rest of the provinces in Canada. Figure 6 presents the breakdown of the number of energy storage-related books, book chapters, and editorials in accordance with publication years in Canada. The year 2018 was the most productive year of Canada by producing 200 documents in the corresponding classification. The other important point that should be pinned in the figure is the year 2005. Compared to the previous year, almost five times more energy storage-related books were published in 2005. Compared to 2019, the number of published books decreased almost by half in 2020. The impact of COVID-19 is recognized as one of numerous reasons behind this result. The number of energy storage-related dissertations completed in Canada over the last five decades is primarily searched through and collected from Library and Archives Canada. The search results are, in this regard, presented in Figure 7. It can be noted that the data presented in Figure 7 is based on the number of energy storage-related theses available in the library; and thus, the results are subject to change in accordance with instantaneous new data entry to the library. As of April 2021, there are 626 energy storage-related MSc and PhD theses/dissertations entered in the online system of Library and Archives Canada. The highest number of theses/dissertations was recorded in the year of 2013 with a value of 62. Based on data collected from the website of Canadian Intellectual Property Office, the number of energy storage-related patents of Canada is 11 719 for the last 50 years. The corresponding results are presented Figure 8. According to this, the year of 2018 appeared to be the Canada's most productive year in terms of patents registered under the title of energy storage. Canada is blessed with institutions that have been supporting energy storage-related research and developments by providing funds. Over the evaluated period of 50 years, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) appears as the major funding agency for Canada's energy storage related research, development, partnership, strategic innovation and commercialization efforts and has supported more than 8500 projects in the field of energy storage. A total number of projects that have been funded by Canadian institutes have become 18021 from 1971 to 2021. It is most likely to observe a major increase in the number of projects by the impact of the recent hydrogen strategic plan of Canada. Being an excellent energy storage medium is one of many advantages of hydrogen. Therefore, there is a significant correlation in between hydrogen and energy storage research efforts. The subject matter report is already named as call-to-action for green hydrogen transition for the energy sector. In the report, the importance of dedicating more domestic resources to green hydrogen efforts to achieve the targets by 2050 is emphasized clearly (Figure 9). The development and implementation efforts of effective, affordable, and nature-friendly energy storage systems are recognized as a key requirement in achieving a green energy transition. In this regard, Canada intends to be the country leading and inspiring many others. Figure 10 shows the a number of Canadian institutes/universities that have produced more than 100 scholarly publications on energy storage under the subject area of energy. According to this, the total number of such scholarly publications has been 9125 over the past five decades. The results clearly show that there are two universities, such as University of Waterloo with 809 publications and Ontario Tech. University (formerly University of Ontario Institute of Technology) with 697 publications, leading in this particular area. University of Waterloo appears as the most productive Canadian university with a total number of 809 publications while Ontario Tech. University, which is one of the Canada's youngest universities, follows with a total number of 697 publications. The specific affiliations in the publications show that the researchers working in the productive environment of Clean Energy Research Laboratory (CERL) at Ontario Tech. have played a major role in this achievement. The data that support the findings of this study are available in Scopus, Library and Archives Canada and Canadian Intellectual Property Office with the reference number of [17], [18], and [19], respectively. These data were derived from the following resources available in the public domain: https://www.scopus.com/search/form.uri?display=basic&zone=header&origin, https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/services/theses/Pages/search.aspx, https://www.ic.gc.ca/opic-cipo/cpd/eng/search/basic.html?wt_src=cipo-patent-main.

Aqueous zinc batteries are promising candidates for safe, low‐cost energy storage, yet their practical deployment is limited by dendrite growth, hydrogen evolution, and poor interfacial stability. Here, we report a polar‐covalent metal–organic hybrid coating, termed Zincone–PC, that stabilizes Zn metal anodes by combining hydrolytic durability with directional ion transport. The Zincone–PC, synthesized via molecular layer deposition, consists of vertically aligned (–Zn–S–hydroquinone–O–) n chains, where polar ZnS bonds provide water resistance and facilitate Zn 2+ conduction through an ionic hopping mechanism. Spectroscopic and structural analyses confirm strong vertical ordering and chemical integrity in aqueous media. Zincone–PC enables stable Zn plating/stripping over 550 cycles at 1 mA cm −2 with nearly 100% Coulombic efficiency. In full cells, it delivers 86% capacity retention after 200 cycles at 0.5 C and maintains 19% at 2 C, demonstrating excellent long‐term stability and rate capability. This work establishes a molecularly engineered strategy for interfacial stabilization in high‐rate, long‐life aqueous Zn batteries.

Aqueous zinc batteries are considered as one of the most promising energy storage systems for large-scale energy storage and wearable electronics, owing to their low cost and intrinsic safety. However, cathode materials that can reversibly host Zn2+ are still less. Here, we demonstrate that two N-containing organic compounds, hexamethoxy hexaazatrinaphthylene (HMHATN) and hexaazatrinaphthylene (HATN), used as cathodes can exhibit excellent reversible Zn2+ storage capability with fast kinetics and the high capacity of 542 and 963 mA h g-1, respectively. The Zn//HMHATN and Zn//HATN full batteries display the high energy density of 160 and 221.6 W h kg-1, respectively, and long-term cycling stability. Further, we investigate the mechanism of Zn2+ storage in the cathodes. More importantly, the flexible aqueous Zn//HMHATN and Zn//HATN batteries fabricated also have high capacity, long-term cycling life and impressive energy density, displaying its application prospect in wearable electronics. Our work opens a new system for finding organic cathode materials used in aqueous zinc batteries.

Cell-nucleus structured electrolyte for low-temperature aqueous zinc batteries

Rechargeable aqueous zinc (Zn) batteries are a promising candidate for large‐scale energy storage, but the noncompact and dendritic Zn deposition, water‐induced parasitic reaction, and narrow operating temperature range severely hinder their practical application. Here, it is demonstrated that these challenges can be conquered by introducing low‐cost acetamide (Ace) into aqueous electrolytes. The non‐sacrificial Ace molecules with both donor and acceptor groups can disrupt the original H‐bonded network of water, replace the solvating‐H2O in Zn2+‐solvation sheath, form dynamic adsorption on Zn, and create an H2O‐poor electrical double‐layer. Consequently, the presence of Ace suppresses water erosion on Zn, homogenizes Zn nucleation/growth, reduces water reactivity, and depresses the freezing point of electrolyte. The formulated Ace‐containing electrolyte features a wide temperature range from −20 to 60 °C and enables highly compact and dendrite‐free Zn electrodeposition even at 25 mAh cm−2 using a non‐pressure electrolytic cell. Moreover, the Ace‐containing electrolyte allows Zn electrodes to achieve a long‐term lifespan across −20–60 °C and excellent deep cycling stability under 85.3% depth‐of‐discharge (25 mAh cm−2) with over 400 h, and supports the stable operation of Zn–Iodine full batteries under harsh conditions.

The quinone-based cathode material, tri-(pyrene-4,5,9,10-tetraone)-di-(tetraamino-p-benzoquinone) (TPDT), for aqueous zinc batteries incorporates extended π-conjugation, cation-radical states, and dynamic tautomerization, resulting in continuous charge-transfer pathways. Therefore, the TPDT composite cathode shows excellent electrochemical performance with only 5% KB additive. Organic small molecules are promising cathode materials for aqueous zinc batteries due to their structural tunability and sustainability. However, their intrinsically poor electrical and ionic conductivities seriously hinder the rate capability. To compensate, organic electrode preparation usually requires the addition of a large amount of carbon agents, typically ≥30%, which adds processing complexity and limits the practical energy density of the system. To address these very important limitations, we design and synthesize a fully conjugated quinone molecule, tri-(pyrene-4,5,9,10-tetraone)-di-(tetraamino-p-benzoquinone) (TPDT), featuring multiple redox-active sites with unique dynamic tautomerization. Experimental and theoretical analyses reveal that TPDT possesses extended π-conjugation, cationic radical stabilization, and π-π stacking interactions, which together promote efficient through-plan and through-space charge transport. Remarkably, the partially reduced TPDT isomers with different C=O or C=N reaction sites exhibit low energy differences, enabling dynamic tautomerization at room temperature. This equilibrium facilitates charge redistribution and continuous charge-transfer pathways across the molecular framework. As a result, TPDT exhibits excellent electrical and ionic conductivities and outstanding electrochemical performance. The composite with graphene oxide further ensures stable cycling. With only 5% Ketjen black (KB) additive, the composite cathode delivers a high capacity of 313 mAh g −1 at 0.1 A g −1 and retains 81 mAh g −1 at 50 A g −1 together with 92% capacity retention after 20,000 cycles. At the low temperature of −20 °C, it still maintains 128 mAh g −1 at 5 A g −1 over 5400 cycles. This work highlights the importance of structural dynamics in designing organic cathodes and has a guiding significance for developing high-performance zinc-organic batteries.

Over the last few decades several innovative ideas have been explored in the energy storage areas, ranging in size, capacity, design complexity, and targeted applications. Some of them are designed for large scale power system applications, others for smallor medium-scale renewable energy or hybrid power systems, while the others are designed to perform short-term energy storage ride through for critical infrastructure (communication systems, hospitals, military facilities, etc.). Energy storage has become an enabling technology for renewable energy applications, grid integration and enhancing power quality and stability in the power transmission and distribution, having a great potential to improve power grid quality and stability and to provide an alternative to fossil fuel-based energy generation. The major constraints for renewable energy penetration are the availability, intermittency, and variability, which can be addressed through energy storage. The energy storage choice depends on specific usage requirements, often incorporating several energy storage systems in order to increase system reliability, capacity, and supply security. In the electric power system, the renewable energy promise lies in its potential to increase grid efficiency, reliability, or in optimizing power flows and supporting variable power supplies. The parameters used in comparisons of various energy storage technologies include efficiency, energy capacity and density, run time, costs, system's response time, lifetime in years and cycles, self-discharge, and maturity of each energy storage technology. The most common energy storage technologies include compressed air, pumped hydro, batteries, fuel cells, flywheels, and super-capacitors. The last four are suitable for the medium scale applications. The chapter discussed energy storage technologies and gives an up to date comparative summary of their performances. After completing this chapter, the readers are able to understand the role, importance, configurations and topologies of energy storage systems, operation principles, characteristics, performances, and operation of major energy storage systems used in power systems, buildings, and industrial facilities. Another benefit is that readers are able to understand the critical role and necessity of energy storage systems in power and renewable energy systems, the differences between large-, mediumand small-scale energy storage systems, and how a system is selected on specific applications based on system characteristics and performances. Major energy storage technologies discussed in this chapter are compressed air energy storage, pumped hydropower storage systems, batteries, flywheels, hydrogen energy storage, fuel cells, supercapacitors, and superconducting energy storage systems. Thermal energy storage systems are covered in detail in the next chapter. This chapter provides comprehensive reviews of the energy storage technologies and gives an up to date comparative summary of their performances, characteristics, and applications.

Motivated by the future of clean energy sources and storage systems, the purpose of this research is to evaluate the ability to combine nuclear and solar photovoltaic generation systems as well as an energy storage system in order to meet the demand of an electric power system load. While nuclear power generation has been around for decades, renewable energy is becoming more popular as technologies begin to become more affordable. In addition, energy storage is still the most expensive component of this equation. A case study was conducted by using an example load pattern for various time periods in a year that is gathered from a North Carolina electric utility. A scalable nuclear power source (such as NuScale) was assumed to supply a constant and continuous power level. A range for solar farm size was selected, and the solar output was calculated by gathering the solar irradiance data from Oak Ridge National Laboratories. The energy storage system capacity for a select nuclear and solar farm size was later determined. These calculations were executed in a MATLAB environment. By comparing energy storage system capacities for a range of nuclear and solar farm sizes, one can determine that renewable resources alone, will not be able to provide enough flexibility to meet the demand of large-scale loads. Our calculations specifically showed that solar PV operation alone results in 9560 MWh energy storage capacity. However, an optimized solar PV and nuclear hybrid generation scheme reduced the energy capacity requirement significantly (by approximately a factor of 13). Utilities are using energy storage systems comprised of batteries like lithium-ion due to their ideal and decreasing price range. Optimizing the size of generation plants and reducing the battery capacity eases the economic impact of variable load demands.

Metal chalcogenide compounds can be used as high-performance cathodes for aqueous Zn batteries. However, the low accessible surfaces and violent volumetric expansion limit their properties and applications. To address these, phase-engineering strategies coupled with a hollow structure were applied to regulate the adsorption/desorption of OH− on the electrode surface and enhance the electrochemical performance. In this study, using a Se@C nanorod template, a series of carbon nanotube (CNT)-supported nickel selenides, including cubic NiSe2, NiSe2/Ni0.85Se composites, and hexagonal Ni0.85Se, were synthesized through an in situ selenylation process for the first time. Due to the large specific surface, high porosity, and hollow carbon skeleton, the optimized NiSe2/Ni0.85Se/CNT has a high specific capacity of 616 Cg−1, excellent rate capability, and stable cycling performance. In addition, its inside Faradic mechanism was investigated using a series of ex situ characterizations and density functional theory calculations. Thus, the fabricated Ni//Zn battery presents a high energy density of 311.4 W h kg−1 at 3485 W kg−1 and long cycling life. This study offers an ingenious strategy for designing nickel selenide electrodes and deeper perception for its Faradic mechanism in alkaline Zn battery.

Rechargeable batteries have been used to power various electric devices and store energy from renewables, but their toxic components (namely, electrode materials, electrolyte, and separator) generally cause serious environment issues when disused. Such toxicity characteristic makes them difficult to power future wearable electronic devices. Now an environmentally friendly and highly safe rechargeable battery, based on a pyrene-4,5,9,10-tetraone (PTO) cathode and zinc anode in mild aqueous electrolyte is presented. The PTO-cathode shows a high specific capacity (336 mAh g-1 ) for Zn2+ storage with fast kinetics and high reversibility. Thus, the PTO//Zn full cell exhibits a high energy density (186.7 Wh kg-1 ), supercapacitor-like power behavior and long-term lifespan (over 1000 cycles). Moreover, a belt-shaped PTO//Zn battery with robust mechanical durability and remarkable flexibility is first fabricated to clarify its potential application in wearable electronic devices.

Aqueous zinc (Zn) batteries (AZBs) exhibit potential as viable candidates for stationary energy storage. Improvements in the plating/stripping efficiency and lifespan of Zn anodes at high applied current density (j) render AZBs attractive for rapid charge and discharge scenarios. However, the existing literature presents inconsistent experimental results and interpretations regarding the impact of j on Zn reversibility. While some studies indicate that increasing j reduces Zn reversibility, others argue the opposite. In this perspective, we delve into this conflicting phenomenon with a specific focus on the fundamentals of Zn electrodeposition, nucleation-growth models and theories related to j, and future development. Our stance supports the notion that an increase in j leads to a volcano-shaped pattern in the reversibility of Zn plating and stripping, and such a relationship lies in the dual and contradictory roles that high j plays in thermodynamics and interfacial kinetics. Our in-depth discussion provides valuable insights for accurate data interpretation and holds significant promise for advancing high-power AZBs.

Long lifespan and high-rate Zn anode boosted by 3D porous structure and conducting network

Regulating the redox reversibility of zinc anode toward stable aqueous zinc batteries