Interface engineering for manipulating the zinc deposition and achieving stable zinc ion batteries

The aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) exhibit promising prospects for large-scale energy storage applications, owing to their notable advantages in terms of safety, abundant reserves of raw materials, and high energy density. However, dendrite growth, hydrogen evolution, and side reaction phenomena arising from the zinc anode side seriously hinder its further development in practical application. To solve these problems, many solutions have been proposed, including the addition of additives in the electrolyte, the design of zinc anode structure, etc., which have made great progress in the past few years. Among them, anode modification of zinc is considered one of the effective means to solve these issues. Herein, we first analyzed the causes of dendrite growth, hydrogen evolution, and side reactions in the presence of zinc anode. Then, we introduce the improved methods for layer coating, alloy anodes, and acid treatment, and provide a comprehensive and in-depth summary of the respective operational principles of these three methods. Finally, we provide a perspective for further development and research of high-performance aqueous zinc-ion batteries.