# Rational Electrolyte Structure Engineering for Highly Reversible Zinc Metal Anode in Aqueous Batteries

## TL;DR

This review explores how to design better electrolytes for zinc batteries to improve performance and safety.

## Contribution

The paper provides a systematic review of electrolyte engineering strategies to enhance zinc metal anodes in aqueous batteries.

## Key findings

- Rational electrolyte design can mitigate dendrite growth and parasitic reactions in zinc anodes.
- Optimization of zinc salts and additives improves electrochemical performance.
- Structure–property relationships in electrolytes are key for next-generation battery development.

## Abstract

This review systematically summarizes the electrochemical principles governing Zn2+ nucleation and deposition, elucidating their intrinsic correlations.The review discusses zinc salt optimization, electrolyte additives, and novel electrolyte designs, providing mechanistic insights into anodic Zn2+ electrodeposition.The review proposes future directions for aqueous zinc metal anode, including dynamic reconstruction, AI-guided additive screening, etc.

This review systematically summarizes the electrochemical principles governing Zn2+ nucleation and deposition, elucidating their intrinsic correlations.

The review discusses zinc salt optimization, electrolyte additives, and novel electrolyte designs, providing mechanistic insights into anodic Zn2+ electrodeposition.

The review proposes future directions for aqueous zinc metal anode, including dynamic reconstruction, AI-guided additive screening, etc.

Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) have garnered considerable attention as promising post-lithium energy storage technologies owing to their intrinsic safety, cost-effectiveness, and competitive gravimetric energy density. However, their practical commercialization is hindered by critical challenges on the anode side, including dendrite growth and parasitic reactions at the anode/electrolyte interface. Recent studies highlight that rational electrolyte structure engineering offers an effective route to mitigate these issues and strengthen the electrochemical performance of the zinc metal anode. In this review, we systematically summarize state-of-the-art strategies for electrolyte optimization, with a particular focus on the zinc salts regulation, electrolyte additives, and the construction of novel electrolytes, while elucidating the underlying design principles. We further discuss the key structure–property relationships governing electrolyte behavior to provide guidance for the development of next-generation electrolytes. Finally, future perspectives on advanced electrolyte design are proposed. This review aims to serve as a comprehensive reference for researchers exploring high-performance electrolyte engineering in AZIBs.