Zinc-air battery has been widely studied due to its advantages of high energy density, abundant electrode material resources, low production cost, long storage life, environmental protection, no pollution, etc. However, in the process of charging and discharging of zinc electrode, the resulted problems including dendrite growth, passivation, hydrogen evolution and corrosion greatly reduce the cycle stability and service life of zinc ion battery. It becomes an important reason for the difference between theoretical energy density and actual energy density of zinc-air battery, and seriously restricts its commercial development process. According to the working principle and passivation mechanism of zinc anode of zinc-air battery, the measures to solve the passivation of zinc anode were analyzed from the aspects of electrolyte optimization, structure design and surface modification of zinc anode. Furthermore, the future research direction of these problems were put forward. Finally, the future development of zinc-air battery was prospected.