Recent advances for Zn-gas batteries beyond Zn-air/oxygen battery

Abstract

Zn-gas batteries have attracted great attention in the area of energy conversion and storage owing to their high theoretical energy density in the past decades. In addition to the most widely researched Zn-air/oxygen battery, other novel Zn-gas batteries such as Zn-CO<inf>2</inf>, Zn-N<inf>2</inf> and Zn-NO batteries as “killing two birds with one stone” strategy have emerged to provide energy power and upgrade the pollutant/useless gases simultaneously. This technology becomes more appealing as a low-cost and controllable method to produce value-added chemicals and fuels (such as CO, HCOO⁻, CH<inf>4</inf>, NH<inf>3</inf>) at the cathode driven by surplus electricity. However, there is an absence of a guide for the selection of catalyst and the construction of energy system. Herein, we overview recent achievements in typical Zn-gas batteries beyond Zn-air/oxygen, mainly including Zn-CO<inf>2</inf>, Zn-N<inf>2</inf> and Zn-NO batteries. The energy storage mechanism of these novel Zn-gas batteries has been clearly elaborated. Then, the produced value-added chemicals and the design of cathodic catalyst materials are summarized. Lastly, the remaining challenges and possible directions of Zn-gas batteries, such as highly reduced products, high yield rate and remarkable battery performance, in the future are discussed.