Lithium metal batteries (LMBs) are attracting increasing interest owing to their high energy density and ultralow redox potential. However, the safety concerns in liquid electrolytes and performance degradation originating from dendrite growth and cathode electrochemistry have severely hindered the practical use of LMBs. Gel polymer electrolytes (GPEs), being considered as the most promising electrolyte replacing currently used liquid electrolytes, have advantages in safety and adaptability to current battery technologies. Hence fruitful work has reported the design and fabrication of functional GPEs that enable them to develop safe and durable LMBs. This review summarizes the recent progress on GPEs with specific functionalities, which are categorized with respect of the strategies for protecting Li metal anodes, controlling thermal runaway, and protecting cathodes. Finally, the future directions and remaining challenges of advanced GPEs for their commercially large-scale production and application in new energy storage systems are summarized to provide guidelines for the future development.

锂金属电池（LMB）由于其高能量密度和超低氧化还原电势而受到越来越多的关注。然而，液体电解质中的安全问题以及源自枝晶生长和阴极电化学的性能下降严重阻碍了LMB的实际使用。凝胶聚合物电解质（GPE）被认为是最有希望替代当前使用的液体电解质的电解质，在安全性和对当前电池技术的适应性方面具有优势。因此，卓有成效的工作报告了功能性GPE的设计和制造，使它们能够开发安全耐用的LMB。这篇综述总结了具有特定功能的GPE的最新进展，这些进展按保护锂金属阳极，控制热失控，和保护阴极。最后，总结了高级GPE在新能源存储系统中的商业化大规模生产和应用的未来方向和尚存的挑战，为未来的发展提供了指导。