Recent Advances and Perspectives of High-Entropy Alloys as Electrocatalysts for Metal-Air Batteries

Metal-air batteries, especially the Li-air and Zn-air ones, have garnered extensive attention and research efforts due to their high theoretical specific energy, safety, and environmental friendliness. Nevertheless, the sluggish kinetics of the cathodes is one of the key factors hindering their practical electrochemical performance. To address this issue, utilizing high-efficiency catalysts is a feasible and effective strategy. Among the varieties of catalysts reported, high-entropy alloys (HEAs) have emerged as a kind of promising catalyst due to their tunable composition and electronic structure. As a result, inspiring battery performances have been achieved in HEAs-catalyzed systems. In this review, we first summarize the reaction mechanism and challenges of the representative metal-air batteries, including Li-O₂, Li-CO₂, and Zn-air batteries, and then introduce the synthesis methods and core effects of HEAs. We also summarize some research progress on HEAs in these batteries. Finally, we offer insights into the future research prospects of HEAs in metal-air batteries.