Aqueous zinc-based batteries are potentially safe systems for large-scale energy storage due to their high safety, low cost, abundant resources, environmental friendliness, and facile preparation processes. Despite significant progress in designing and developing high-performance zinc-based batteries, several challenges still need to be overcome for their practical application. Particularly, there is currently no viable cathode material for practical application. Therefore, a comprehensive review of the energy storage mechanisms, electrochemical performance, and latest advancements in cathode materials is provided in this article. The advantages and disadvantages of various cathode materials are discussed based on their energy storage mechanisms, while the challenges encountered in practical applications of these materials are analyzed. Additionally, potential new high-performance materials reported in recent research and novel strategies proposed to enhance electrochemical performance are discussed. By elucidating the current status of diverse cathode materials and outlining approaches for further improvement, this review aims to guide the future design of aqueous zinc-based batteries, thereby promoting their practical application.

Because of their high safety, low cost, and high volumetric specific capacity, zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs) are considered promising next-generation energy storage devices, especially given their high potential for large-scale energy storage. Despite these advantages, many problems remain for ZIBs—such as Zn dendrite growth, hydrogen evolution, and Zn anode corrosion—which significantly reduce the coulomb efficiency and reversibility of the battery and limit its cycle lifespan, resulting in much uncertainty in terms of its practical applications. Numerous electrolyte additives have been proposed in recent years to solve the aforementioned problems. This review focuses on electrolyte additives and discusses the different substances employed as additives to overcome the problems by altering the Zn²⁺ solvation structure, creating a protective layer at the anode–electrolyte interface, and modulating the Zn²⁺ distribution to be even and Zn deposition to be uniform. On the basis of the review, the possible research strategies, future directions of electrolyte additive development, and the existing problems to be solved are also described.

Despite the remarkable ion-hosting capability of MXenes, their electrochemical performance is restricted to the ion shuttle barrier stemming from the capacious surface and the sluggish chemical activity of intrinsic transition metal layers. Herein, we construct a vertically aligned array of V₂CT_X flakes utilizing a carbon sphere template (V₂CT_X@CS), with the interlayer galleries outward facing the external electrolyte, to shorten the diffusion length and mitigate the ion shuttle barrier. Moreover, we leverage the high sensitivity of V₂CT_X flakes to the water–oxygen environment, fully activating the masked active sites of transition metal layers in an aqueous environment via continuous electrochemical scanning. Aqueous V₂CT_X@CS/Zn battery delivers a novel capacity enhancement over 42,000 cycles at 10 A g⁻¹. After activation, the capacity reaches up to 409 mAh g_V2CTX⁻¹ at 0.5 A g⁻¹ and remains at 122 mAh g_V2CTX⁻¹ at 18 A g⁻¹. With a 0.95-V voltage plateau, the energy density of 330.4 Wh kg_V2CTX⁻¹ surpasses previous records of aqueous MXene electrodes.

Obtaining stable aqueous K-ion capacitors is still challenging due to the cathode materials tended to structurally collapse after long-term cycling during large-radius K-ion insertion/extraction. In this work, three different typical MXene electrodes, i.e., Nb₂C, Ti₂C, and Ti₃C₂ were individually investigated upon their electrochemical behaviors for potassium-ion (K-ion) storage. All these MXene materials exhibited pseudocapacitive-dominated behaviors, fast kinetics, and durable K-ion storage, delivering superior performance compared with other K-ion host materials. According to the experimental results, it could be ascribed to the intrinsically large interlayer distance for K-ion transport and the superb structural stability of MXene even subjected to long-term potassiation/depotassiation process.