Fig. 6: Electrocatalytic materials for aqueous Zn||S battery.

a Schematic illustrating challenges and the homogeneous catalysts for Zn||S batteries^41,42. b Schematic of the Li||S and Zn||S batteries’ performance metrics (Supplementary Table 2). c Mechanism of an I₂-based homogeneous catalyst. Adapted with permission from Liu et al. Copyright 2023 American Chemical Society⁴³. d Effect of cathodic catalysis on conversion from S to ZnS tested under 0.1 A g⁻¹. Use with permission of The Royal Society of Chemistry, from Wu et al.; permission conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc⁴⁵. e Reduced polarization induced by the dual mediators. The batteries were tested with a sulfur content of 26.4 wt.% and 2 M zinc sulfate (ZnSO₄) aqueous electrolyte solution with various additives. The batteries were scanned from 0.2 V to 1.7 V with a scan rate of 0.2 mV s⁻¹. Use with permission of The Royal Society of Chemistry, from Wu et al.; permission conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc⁴⁵. Reprint from Chem et al., with permission from Elsevier⁴¹. f Comparative analysis of cycling performance with reported electrolytes and additives with S mass loading from 1.13 to 4 mg cm⁻¹ in which, larger size refers to greater S loading mass. Reproduced with permission from refs. ^{41,44,46,47,48,49}. All of the batteries were tested at room temperature. The testing conditions are 1 A g⁻¹ with 1 M ZnSO₄ in the electrolyte solution from ref. ⁴¹, 2 A g⁻¹ with 1 M zinc acetate (ZnAC₂) in the electrolyte solution from ref. ⁴¹, 1 A g⁻¹ with 3 M zinc trifluoromethanesulfonate (Zn(OTF)₂) in the electrolyte solution, 1 A g⁻¹ with 1 M ZnAC₂ and poly(ethylene glycol) in the electrolyte solution, 4 A g⁻¹ with 2 M Zn(OTF)₂, tetraglyme, and I₂ in the electrolyte solution and 3 A g⁻¹ with 2 M Zn(OTF)₂, ethylene glycol and I₂ in the electrolyte solution from refs. ^43,44,45,46.