Low‐Temperature Aluminum‐Zinc Hydrogen‐Aided Battery

Abstract

Abstract The need for reliable power sources in cold environments drives the development of efficient low‐temperature batteries. While zinc‐air batteries (ZABs) are promising due to low cost, high safety, and environmental compatibility, their performance at low temperatures is limited by sluggish kinetics. Here, we report an aluminum‐zinc hydrogen‐aided battery (AZ‐HAB) that overcomes this limitation through a synergistic redesign of both electrodes. At the cathode, the kinetically favorable hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) replaces the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), reducing the charging potential and enhancing high‐rate performance at low temperatures. The anode uses a composite structure (Al@Zn) with Zn pre‐deposited on Al, leveraging Al's high activity and low deposition overpotential. This design reduces the full‐cell resistance to one‐third that of bare Zn, promotes uniform Zn deposition, and lowers polarization by 200 mV at 150 mA cm − 2 . The synergistic effect of both electrodes accelerates reaction kinetics, enabling an 11‐fold longer cycle life than conventional ZABs at −20 °C. This work presents a viable strategy for high‐performance energy storage and electric vehicles in extremely cold environments.