Rechargeable Zn-air batteries: Recent trends and future perspectives

Kee Wah Leong, Yifei Wang, Meng Ni, Wending Pan, Shijing Luo and Dennis Y.C. Leung

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2022, vol. 154, issue C

Abstract: Currently a hot research topic, rechargeable zinc-air batteries are considered one of the most promising post lithium-ion battery technologies for utility-scale energy storage, electric vehicles, and other consumer electronics. Nevertheless, despite a high energy density, low cost, and material abundance, the development of alkaline-based Zn-air batteries has been hampered by parasitic reactions at the Zn anode and sluggish oxygen redox kinetics. This article will review the current status of Zn-air batteries, discuss recent development trends including neutral and hybrid Zn-air batteries, and highlight future research needs. Specifically, an analysis of the latest publications will show that, through redesigning the anode, introducing alternative electrolytes, and engineering high-performing bifunctional oxygen catalysts, researchers have successfully prolonged the battery reversibility to a few thousand cycles and reached unprecedented energy efficiencies over 70%. Although unsolved obstacles remain, these strategies have opened up interesting possibilities in the advancement of rechargeable Zn-air batteries, creating promising prospects for the energy and electronics industries.

Keywords: Bifunctional oxygen catalyst; Electrolyte; Hybrid Zn battery; Quasi-neutral electrolyte; Quasi-solid-state battery; Zinc-air battery (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032121010406
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:rensus:v:154:y:2022:i:c:s1364032121010406

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 600126/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2021.111771

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews is currently edited by L. Kazmerski

More articles in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().