Binder-free V₂O₅ cathode for greener rechargeable aluminum battery

This letter reports on the investigation of a binder-free cathode material to be used in rechargeable aluminum batteries. This cathode is synthesized by directly depositing V₂O₅ on a Ni foam current collector. Rechargeable aluminum coin cells fabricated using the as-synthesized binder-free cathode delivered an initial discharge capacity of 239 mAh/g, which is much higher than that of batteries fabricated using a cathode composed of V₂O₅ nanowires and binder. An obvious discharge voltage plateau appeared at 0.6 V in the discharge curves of the Ni-V₂O₅ cathode, which is slightly higher than that of the V₂O₅ nanowire cathodes with common binders. This improvement is attributed to reduced electrochemical polarization.