Smart Aqueous Zinc Ion Battery: Operation Principles and Design Strategy

The zinc ion battery (ZIB) as a promising energy storage device has attracted great attention due to its high safety, low cost, high capacity, and the integrated smart functions. Herein, the working principles of smart responses, smart self-charging, smart electrochromic as well as smart integration of the battery are summarized. Thus, this review enables to inspire researchers to design the novel functional battery devices for extending their application prospects. In addition, the critical factors associated with the performance of the smart ZIBs are comprehensively collected and discussed from the viewpoint of the intellectualized design. A profound understanding for correlating the design philosophy in cathode materials and electrolytes with the electrode interface is provided. To address the current challenging issues and the development of smart ZIB systems, a wide variety of emerging strategies regarding the integrated battery system is finally prospected. This review discusses the design of smart zinc ion batteries (ZIBs) in self-charging, electrochromic, self-healing, self-protection, wide operating temperature range and their applications in different fields. The critical factors and design philosophy determining the function and performance of smart ZIBs are comprehensively analyzed from the intellectualized design, the main challenges and the development of smart zinc battery systems are discussed and prospected.image

Automated summary

This article summarizes the working principles of smart responses, self-charging, electrochromic, and battery integration in zinc ion batteries (ZIBs), and prospects emerging strategies to address current challenges and the development of smart ZIB systems.