Artificial protective layers of zinc metal anodes for reversible aqueous zinc ion batteries

Aqueous zinc ion batteries (AZIBs) are ideal candidates for next-generation energy storage technologies because they possess satisfactory safety, environmental friendliness, natural abundance, high theoretical specific capacity, and suitable redox potential. However, AZIBs are suffering serious anode issues, which limit their practical applications. To overcome these problems, architecting artificial protective layer (APL) on zinc metal is one of common modification strategies, which can effectively surpass the side reactions and dendrite generation by the designed functional coverings. In this review, we discuss the different materials applied in the APL and the corresponding specific working mechanism for anode optimization, as well as the challenges and perspectives of the strategies for APLs. The review aims at providing general principles and suggestions on the development of advanced anodes for AZIBs.