Water Management Toward Durable Aqueous Zinc Ion Batteries.

Abstract

Aqueous zinc ion batteries (AZIBs) hold immense promises for large-scale energy storage, owing to their intrinsic safety, cost-effectiveness, environmental benignity, and rapid reaction kinetics-advantages fundamentally originating from the aqueous electrolyte. However, this aqueous medium acts as a definitive "double-edged sword." The high thermodynamic reactivity of water simultaneously triggers severe parasitic vulnerabilities, including the hydrogen evolution reaction, severe electrode corrosion, uncontrollable dendrite proliferation, and cathode dissolution, which critically degrade battery stability and impede practical commercialization. Consequently, mitigating these conflicting roles through precise "water management" has emerged not merely as an optimization strategy, but as the ultimate bottleneck determining the future viability of AZIBs. Recognizing this urgency, this review provides a comprehensive, multi-dimensional water management framework. We systematically elucidate the fundamental physicochemical behaviors of water, dialectically analyze its dualistic nature, and critically discuss state-of-the-art regulatory strategies across four aspects: electrolyte formulation, electrode, and interface engineering, functional auxiliary materials, and macroscopic device architectures. By shifting the research paradigm from conventional material modification to targeted water regulation, we highlight the synergistic mechanisms required to neutralize water-induced side reactions. Ultimately, we outline future research trajectories, providing a forward-looking roadmap to bridge the gap between fundamental research and the industrial-scale deployment of durable AZIBs.