Recent advances and perspectives of electrolyte additives for enhanced anode reversibility in aqueous zinc-ion batteries

Although lithium-ion batteries have achieved widespread commercial success, they are not suitable for large-scale energy applications due to limited lithium resources and relatively high cost. In this context, aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) have emerged as promising alternatives, offering advantages such as cost-effectiveness, superior safety and a simplified manufacturing process. Nevertheless, AZIBs currently face a series of critical challenges, including uncontrolled dendrite growth, low zinc utilization efficiency and notorious side reactions. To address these concerns, extensive research efforts have been made to develop innovative electrolyte formulation strategies, with a strong emphasis on electrolyte additives owing to simplicity, adaptability and exceptional versatility. This review provides a comprehensive and systematic analysis of recent advancements in electrolyte additive engineering for AZIBs, highlighting their immense potential in addressing key challenges and offering critical insights into regulation mechanisms, practical applications and future directions for advancing performance and sustainability. Furthermore, an in-depth comprehensive and systematic summary of the latest advancements is provided in detail. Overall, this review aims to inspire innovative research and accelerate AZIBs development for next-generation energy storage applications.