Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) with low cost and high safety have received considerable attention for their potential application in large-scale energy storage and wearable electronics [
1–
12]. In general, the recharge of AZIBs needs using external electricity power. But, the recharge of AZIBs will be restricted in some outdoors circumstances where the electrical energy cannot be provided. To overcome this limitation, numerous self-charging power systems were invented and created to extract energy from renewable resources, such as sunlight, wind energy and air [
13,
14]. It is a pity that sunlight and wind energy are not available anytime and anywhere. In contrast, air can provide cost-free energy resources anytime and anywhere through oxygen, because the chemical energy of oxygen molecules can be converted into electrical energy
via redox reactions [
15]. Recently, AZIBs with air-recharging capability have begun to be reported [
16–
21], but, they are still in their infancy and some of them also faced with problems of low air-recharging capability and capacity improvement. So, developing new AZIBs with excellent air-recharging capability, high capacity and high stability is still an important task. To achieve this goal, selection of cathode materials is very critical, due to the potential difference between discharged cathodes and O
2 is relative to the air-recharging capability for AZIBs. Compared with inorganic compounds, organic compounds as electrode materials have advantages of structural designability, sustainability and controllable synthesis [
22,
23]. Various organic aromatic compounds containing carbonyl/imine groups (C═O/C═N) as the cathode materials of AZIBs have been developed in recent years, owing to carbonyl/imine groups can coordinate reversibly and efficiently with Zn
2+/H
+ ions [
24–
37]. Very recently, Niu
et al. reported an air-rechargeable Zn/organic battery with H
+-based chemistry, displaying an application promising of organic cathode in self-powered systems [
21]. On the other hand, we have found that it is an effective route to introduce electron-withdrawing groups into
π-conjugated aromatic molecule for obtaining high-performance organic cathode materials of AZIBs [
35]; besides, we also noted that nitro group (-NO
2) is not only an electron-withdrawing group, but also can coordinate with Li
+ ions [
38]. Inspired by these facts, we synthesized a new
π-conjugated aromatic compound trinitrohexaazatrinaphthylene (TNHATN) with both multiple redox active sites (C═N and -NO
2 groups)
via introducing electron-withdrawing groups (-NO
2) into hexaazatrinaphthylene (HATN) (
Fig. 1a), and developed an air-rechargeable AZIB based on TNHATN cathode. Impressively, the discharged TNHATN cathode (TNHATN-Zn-H) can be converted to the charged state
via the spontaneous redox reaction with O
2 in air, due to the potential difference between TNHATN-Zn-H and O
2 (
Fig. 1c), thus, when worked open to the air, the discharged flexible aqueous Zn//TNHATN battery can be chemically self-recharged
via O
2 from air.