An energetic Sn metal aqueous battery

Despite a promising prospect, aqueous batteries (ABs) are facing challenges of limited energy density (30∼100 Wh/kg). Metal anodes offer prospectively high energy with large voltage and specific capacity. However, the development of current metal anodes (e.g., Zn, Cu, Mn, Al, Fe, etc.) are impeded due to inevitable dendrite formation, corrosion, and hydrogen evolution reaction. Recently in Joule and Journal of the American Chemical Society, Meng, Chao, and their co-workers demonstrated novel paradigms of high-energy Sn-based aqueous batteries (SnABs), which show promising reversibility and durability of Sn metail anodes. Here, we present the development of Sn metal anodes and appraise critically the state-of-the-art strategies toward energetic SnABs.