Pre-intercalation strategy in vanadium oxides cathodes for aqueous zinc ion batteries: Review and prospects

Aqueous zinc ion batteries (ZIBs) have attracted widespread interests in the field of energy storage owing to the inherent advantages of safety, low cost, and environmental friendliness. Among them, V-based materials with high capacity, open structure, and multiple valence states have successfully emerged among numerous cathodes. However, issues such as V-dissolution and severe capacity degradation have greatly limited their application. Recently, significant advances have been made in the preparation of novel V-based materials for aqueous ZIBs by guest species pre-intercalating, which largely improves structural stability and accelerated charge migration for capacity enhancement and stable cycling. Herein, this review presents the latest research progress on guest species pre-intercalating vanadium oxides cathodes, analyzes their crystal structure changes and Zn2+ storage mechanisms, and considers the effects of different guest materials on the electrochemical capacity of vanadium oxides cathodes. Additionally, this review presents some insights into the current main bottlenecks and suggests prospective solutions. Finally, the current development trend of aqueous ZIBs is also anticipated. The above findings and opinions will be of interest to many researchers and manufacturers, and provide a pathway for the commercialization.