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Aluminum-copper alloy anode materials for high-energy aqueous aluminum batteries

Authors :
Qing Ran
Hang Shi
Huan Meng
Shu-Pei Zeng
Wu-Bin Wan
Wei Zhang
Zi Wen
Xing-You Lang
Qing Jiang
Source :
Nature Communications, Vol 13, Iss 1, Pp 1-9 (2022), Nature Communications
Publication Year :
2022
Publisher :
Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2022.

Abstract

Aqueous aluminum batteries are promising post-lithium battery technologies for large-scale energy storage applications because of the raw materials abundance, low costs, safety and high theoretical capacity. However, their development is hindered by the unsatisfactory electrochemical behaviour of the Al metal electrode due to the presence of an oxide layer and hydrogen side reaction. To circumvent these issues, we report aluminum-copper alloy lamellar heterostructures as anode active materials. These alloys improve the Al-ion electrochemical reversibility (e.g., achieving dendrite-free Al deposition during stripping/plating cycles) by using periodic galvanic couplings of alternating anodic α-aluminum and cathodic intermetallic Al2Cu nanometric lamellas. In symmetric cell configuration with a low oxygen concentration (i.e., 0.13 mg L−1) aqueous electrolyte solution, the lamella-nanostructured eutectic Al82Cu18 alloy electrode allows Al stripping/plating for 2000 h with an overpotential lower than ±53 mV. When the Al82Cu18 anode is tested in combination with an AlxMnO2 cathode material, the aqueous full cell delivers specific energy of ~670 Wh kg−1 at 100 mA g−1 and an initial discharge capacity of ~400 mAh g−1 at 500 mA g−1 with a capacity retention of 83% after 400 cycles.<br />Aqueous Al-ion batteries are attractive post-lithium battery technologies. Here Al-Cu alloy lamellar heterostructures with periodic galvanic couplings are reported as efficient anode active material to produce high-energy aqueous Al-ion batteries.

Details

ISSN :
20411723
Volume :
13
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Nature Communications
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....35f0bfad5c722bf02d0967446fc8298e
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28238-3