Key materials and future perspective for aqueous rechargeable lithium-ion batteries

Aqueous rechargeable lithium-ion battery (ARLiB) is of specific importance due to the low-cost, environmental-friendly properties. Recently, its energy denisty and cyclic life have been significantly enhanced, demonstarting the potential for real applications. The improvement on key materials of ARLiB, ranging from cathode, anode and electrolyte, can finally ameliorate coresponding performance of full cell. Hereon, the cathode materials of ARLiBs are summerized as spinel oxides, layered oxides, olivine polyanion compounds olivine and Prussian blue analogues, while anode materials are classified into vanadium-based, polyanion, titanium-based and organic ones. Meanwhile, the strategies for better aqueous electrolytes are discussed from the aspects of salt concentration, solvent and interface. In the last part, issues challenging the commercialization of ARLiBs are provided as well as the suggestions for future research and development.