Recent Advance on the Application of Carbon Materials for Anodes of Aqueous Zinc Ion Batteries

Among the currently developed electrochemical energy storage battery systems, aqueous zinc ion batteries (AZIBs) have attracted wide attention from researchers due to their safe operation, environmental friendliness, and high theoretical specific capacities. However, the anode of AZIBs faces challenges, such as hydrogen evolution side reactions, dendritic growth, and metal corrosion, which hinder their further development in the field of energy storage. In recent years, various types of carbon materials (such as carbon quantum dots, carbon nanotubes, carbon nanofibers, graphene and MOF derived carbon) have been widely used in AZIBs, providing many strategies for stabilizing zinc anode. As electrolyte additives, carbon materials can preferentially adsorb on the surface of zinc metal and induce Zn²⁺ deposition. As the interface layer of the anode, the carbon material coating can not only prevent direct contact between the zinc anode and the electrolyte, but also uniform ion flow, thereby preventing metal corrosion and achieving dendrite free growth of zinc metal. As the anode substrate, the carbon framework can uniform current density, induce the nucleation of Zn²⁺, and thus regulate the deposition behavior of zinc. This review summarizes the basic structure, working mechanism, current issues of zinc metal anode in AZIBs, and recent advances on carbon materials for stabilizing zinc metal anode, and presents future prospects for the application of carbon materials in the field of AZIBs and proposes optimization plans, including the preparation of flexible carbon nanomaterials as zinc metal interface layers, preparation of gradient zincophilic carbon nanomaterials as anode substrates through the chemical control, constructing a carbon composite material interface layer on the surface of the zinc anode, enriching the modification strategies of carbon materials for zinc anode, and preparation of heteroatom-doped carbon materials as zinc anode substrates.