Low-Temperature Aluminum-Zinc Hydrogen-Aided Battery

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.