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Aqueous zinc‐ion batteries (AZIBs) are considered as the promising candidates for large‐scale energy storage because of their high safety, low cost and environmental benignity. The large‐scale applications of AZIBs will inevitably result in a large amount of spent AZIBs, which not only induce the waste of resources, but also pose environmental risks. Therefore, sustainable AZIBs have to be considered to minimize the risk of environmental pollution and maximize the utilization of spent compounds. Herein, this minireview focuses on the sustainability of AZIBs from material design and recycling techniques. The structure and degradation mechanism of AZIBs are discussed to guide the recycling design of the materials. Subsequently, the sustainability of component materials in AZIBs is further analysed to pre‐evaluate their recycling behaviors and mentor the selection of more sustainable component materials, including active materials in cathodes, Zn anodes, and aqueous electrolytes, respectively. According to the features of component materials, corresponding green and economic approaches are further proposed to realize the recycling of active materials in cathodes, Zn anodes and electrolytes, respectively. These advanced technologies endow the recycling of component materials with high efficiency and a closed‐loop control, ensuring that AZIBs will be the promising candidates of sustainable energy storage devices. This review will offer insight into potential future directions in the design of sustainable AZIBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aqueous Zn‐based batteries (AZBs) have appealed numerous attentions in the energy storage field due to their low cost, environmental friendliness and high safety. However, the Zn metal anode faces severe challenges of short cycle life because of the dendrite growth and side reactions, which hinders the practical application of AZBs. Herein, an artificial coating layer of cyclized polyacrylonitrile (cPAN) is designed on the Zn anode through spin‐coating and thermal treatment. The cPAN layer possesses abundant N‐containing groups and delocalized π‐conjugation structure, which endows the Zn anode with low nucleation barrier and homogeneous electric field. Benefiting from these synergetic advantages, the nucleation overpotential of Zn is remarkably decreased. Furthermore, no obvious byproduct is observed on the cPANZ‐Zn after cycling. As a result, the resultant cPANZ‐Zn anode delivers a long lifespan of 600 h and high reversibility. cPANZ‐Zn||MnO2 full cells are further assembled and exhibited stable cycling and high rate capability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lithium||sulfur (Li||S) batteries are considered as one of the promising next‐generation batteries due to the high theoretical capacity and low cost of S cathodes, as well as the low redox potential of Li metal anodes (−3.04 V vs. standard hydrogen electrode). However, the S reduction reaction from S to Li2S leads to limited discharge voltage and capacity, largely hindering the energy density of Li||S batteries. Herein, high‐energy Li||S hybrid batteries were designed via an electrolyte decoupling strategy. In cathodes, S electrodes undergo the solid‐solid conversion reaction from S to Cu2S with four‐electron transfer in a Cu2+‐based aqueous electrolyte. Such an energy storage mechanism contributes to enhanced electrochemical performance of S electrodes, including high discharge potential and capacity, superior rate performance and stable cycling behavior. As a result, the assembled Li||S hybrid batteries exhibit a high discharge voltage of 3.4 V and satisfactory capacity of 2.3 Ah g−1, contributing to incredible energy density. This work provides an opportunity for the construction of high‐energy Li||S batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the vibration analysis of the viscoelastic nanobeams reinforced with functionally graded carbon nanotubes (FG-CNTs), considering the thickness stretching effect subjected to magneto-hygro-thermo loading based on a novel higher-order shear deformation theory. It is assumed that the nanosize structure is resting on Kerr's elastic foundation. The effective material properties of FG-CNTs are changed through the thickness direction based on five diverse distributions of CNTs. All of the effective material properties of the nanobeam are temperature-dependent. Nonlocal strain gradient theory is applied to consider the size effect. A higher-order shear deformation beam theory is utilized to consider the shear impacts. Three kinds of relations are employed to study the effects of the hygro-thermo loading comprehensively on the frequency of the nanobeams. An analytical solution technique is utilized to solve the nonlocal governing equations achieved from Hamilton's principle for several boundary conditions. The influences of size effect parameters, elastic foundation factors, distributions of CNTs, hygrothermal environment, and viscoelastic parameter on the frequency of nanobeams are investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]