Abstract: With the increase in the global economy, the growing investment in renewable energy is considered to play a key role in addressing the current issues associated with overreliance on fossil fuels and serious environmental pollution. Photo-enhanced rechargeable zinc–air batteries can efficiently convert and store excess solar energy from nature, thereby improving energy utilisation and photoelectric conversion efficiency. Specifically, it ensures that the power supply is not influenced by weather variations. Catalysts play a pivotal role in determining the performance of photo-enhanced rechargeable zinc–air batteries. This review firstly introduces the working principle of photo-enhanced rechargeable zinc–air batteries, then summarizes the preparation methods, performance optimisation, and research and application of bifunctional properties of photo/electric catalysts in rechargeable zinc– air batteries; and at last highlights future research opportunities and challenges in this field. 

Key words: photo-enhanced zinc–air battery, photo-active bifunctional catalysts, oxygen evolution reaction (OER), oxygen reduction reaction (ORR)