Mitigation strategies for reducing self-discharge in aqueous zinc batteries

Aqueous zinc batteries (AZBs) are a promising power storage technology for electricity storage in applications requiring high safety and power density. However, because of the use of aqueous electrolytes, AZBs face problems of self-discharge caused by a number of material and system design requirements. This is partially because of the narrow electrochemical stability window of water in electrolytes, which makes AZBs and aqueous batteries in general experience more severe self-discharge compared to lithium-ion batteries, which use organic electrolytes. In this perspective, we discuss the influence of each component of an AZB battery on the self-discharge phenomenon and the corresponding mitigation strategies.