Aqueous and Non-Aqueous Rechargeable Aluminum Metal and Aluminum Ion Batteries

Abstract: Around the world, there is a critical need for cost‐effective and sustainable battery technologies for electric transportation and renewable energy storage. This urgency has led to a research wave on novel batteries made of low‐cost, high‐abundance and safe components. One element of interest is aluminum (Al) because it offers the above advantages, and very high theoretical volumetric and gravimetric capacities because of its three-electron redox chemistry. Our group investigates both aqueous Al metal and non-aqueous Al ion batteries. For aqueous Al metal batteries, we investigated the (electro)chemical processes involved in two solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) building methods through a combination of computational, electrochemical, and spectroscopic characterizations. We show that both methods lack the ability to form stable and effective SEIs. Overall, hydrogen evolution remains as the sole cathodic reaction and no Al deposition can be achieved. This is the fundamental reason behind the lower-than-expected voltages and cyclabilities of currently reported aqueous Al batteries. To promote future research into enabling truly reversible aqueous Al metal batteries, we offer suggestions for the design of more reliable electrolytes and interphases utilizing the insights gained in our investigation. For non-aqueous Al ion batteries, we focused on the development of new electrolyte chemistries as a substitute for dialkylimidazolium chloride-based chloroaluminate ionic liquids that face the disadvantages of high material cost associated with small-scale production and potential environmental concerns. Here, we report a high-performance Al ion battery made of Al anode, graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) cathode, and our cost-effective ionic liquid electrolyte by combining aluminum chloride with trimethylamine hydrochloride (TMAHCl) which deliver superior performance compared with the state-of-the-art Al ion batteries. The charge-storage mechanism of Al/GNP batteries employing this ionic liquid electrolyte is investigated using cyclic voltammetry coupled with in-situ Raman spectroscopy and ex-situ X-ray diffraction. A significant contribution from (pseudo)capacitive process is considered to contribute positively to the enhanced rate performance of the battery. Considering the low cost and high performance, this battery chemistry opens a new avenue for the development of next-generation Al batteries.

Bio: Dr. Gisele Azimi is an Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Urban Mining Innovations. She is jointly appointed by the Departments of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry and Materials Science & Engineering at the University of Toronto. She is also a registered Professional Engineer in Ontario. In her research program, she strives to enable sustainability in terms of energy and global warming as well as materials criticality. The research program covers three themes: 1) Energy storage and electrochemistry with a focus on the development of electrolytic processes for production of ultra-pure metals as well as the development of a new generations of rechargeable batteries that are cost-effective, high-performance, safe, and made of earth abundant materials (aluminum batteries); 2) Extractive metallurgy and Urban mining with a focus on recycling and recovering strategic materials from primary and secondary resources such as ionic clays, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) or industrial solid wastes; and 3) Advanced materials with a focus on designing innovative materials to enable the first two themes, e.g., novel 2D heterostructures for the cathode of Al battery or scale-phobic surfaces to mitigate precipitation fouling in extractive metallurgy. She received her Ph.D. in 2010 from the department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry at the University of Toronto. Before returning to the University of Toronto as a faculty member in 2014, she completed two postdoctoral appointments at MIT in the departments of Materials Science and Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. She has been recognized with several young researcher awards for excellence in Research, Teaching, and Leadership, namely “Canada Research Chair (Tier 2)”, “Emerging Leaders of Chemical Engineering (Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering)”, “The 2020 CSChE Innovation Award”, “The 2020 Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering Lectureship Award”, “The 2020 TMS Young Leaders Award (Minerals, Metals, and Materials Society (TMS))”, “McCharles Prize for Early Career Research Distinction”, “FASE Early Career Teaching Award”, and “Impact Teacher of the Year Award.”

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