A roadmap for fusing smart zinc energy with advanced technologies

Sustainable energy based on zinc chemistry has triggered enormous scientific and technological innovations due to its high energy density, cost-effectiveness, good environmental and biological compatibility, flexible designability, as well as rich abundance in earth. The recent decades have witnessed the versatility and prevalence of zinc energy in a myriad of emerging intelligent and functional communities, which calls for an urgent and critical review to spotlight the fantastic achievements. After a brief introduction on the fundamentals of zinc energy, we take a systematic scrutiny on the current progress of fusing smart zinc energy with various advanced technologies, including wearable, biomedical, sensing, electrochromic, and energy harvesting technologies. In particular, the ingenious design concepts, working principles, integration strategies, as well as performance optimization of these smart fused devices are elaborately emphasized. Finally, we project a perspective roadmap on discussing the interdisciplinary development and existing challenges of smart technologies based on zinc energy, which will vivify multi-scenario applications in our future daily life.