Manganese-Based Oxide Cathode Materials for Aqueous Zinc-Ion Batteries: Materials, Mechanism, Challenges, and Strategies

Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) have recently attracted worldwide attention due to the natural abundance of Zn, low cost, high safety, and environmental benignity. Up to the present, several kinds of cathode materials have been employed for aqueous zinc-ion batteries, including manganese-based, vanadium-based, organic electrode materials, Prussian Blues, and their analogues, etc. Among all the cathode materials, manganese (Mn)-based oxide cathode materials possess the advantages of low cost, high theoretical specific capacity, and abundance of reserves, making them the most promising cathode materials for commercialization. However, several critical issues, including intrinsically poor conductivity, sluggish diffusion kinetics of Zn²⁺, Jahn–Teller effect, and Mn dissolution, hinder their practical applications. This Review provides an overview of the development history, research status, and scientific challenges of manganese-based oxide cathode materials for aqueous zinc-ion batteries. In addition, the failure mechanisms of manganese-based oxide materials are also discussed. To address the issues facing manganese-based oxide cathode materials, various strategies, including pre-intercalation, defect engineering, interface modification, morphology regulation, electrolyte optimization, composite construction, and activation of dissolution/deposition mechanism, are summarized. Finally, based on the analysis above, we provide future guidelines for designing Mn-based oxide cathode materials for aqueous zinc-ion batteries.