Design of Zn Anode for Zinc-Air Batteries

The low cost, low corrosion rate, and high safety Zn metal make the Zn-air batteries one of the most promising batteries to be practical applications in the near future. However, the side reactions that happened on the Zn anode, including corrosion, passivation, and dendrite growth, become major factors influencing the performance of zinc-air batteries, greatly reducing the Zn-air battery performance. Lots of factors have been proved to affect these side reactions, including electrolyte composition and Zn electrode condition. Luckily, lots of inspiring progress on the Zn anode protection has been reported by researchers recently, whose efforts can be sorted into two major areas, e.g. modification of electrolyte and optimization of Zn metal anode itself. Although these areas also show some restrictions, which limit the further applications of the state-of-the-art Zn-air batteries, they are expected to lead to the further development of Zn-air batteries.