Electrolyte Salts and Additives Regulation Enables High Performance Aqueous Zinc Ion Batteries: a Mini Review

Aqueous zinc ion batteries (ZIBs) are regarded as one of the most ideally suited candidates for large-scale energy storage applications owning to their obvious advantages, i.e., low cost, high safety, high ionic conductivity, abundant raw material resources and eco-friendliness. Much effort has been devoted to the exploration of cathode materials design, cathode storage mechanisms, anode protection as well as failure mechanisms, while inadequate attentions are paid on the performance enhancement through modifying the electrolyte salts and additives. Herein, to fulfil a comprehensive aqueous ZIBs research database, a range of recently published electrolyte salts and additives researches are reviewed and discussed in this mini review. Furthermore, the remaining challenges and future directions of electrolytes in aqueous ZIBs are also suggested, which could provide insights to push ZIBs’ commercialization.