All-carbon positive electrodes for stable aluminium batteries

For addressing the critical problems in current collectors in the aluminium batteries, a variety of carbon-based current collectors, including carbon fiber textiles and three-dimensional (3D) biomass-derivative carbon (BDC) networks, are employed for serving as lightweight non-metal current collectors. The results indicate that all the carbon-based current collectors have electrochemical stability in the acidic electrolyte environments. In the assembled aluminium batteries with all-carbon positive electrodes, thermal annealing process on the carbon-based current collectors has substantially promoted the entire electrochemical energy storage performance. Additionally, both the structure configuration and chemical components of the current collectors have also great impact on the rate capability and cycling stability, implying that the 3D BDC networks are more favorable to offer promoted energy storage capability. Implication of the results from suggests that the carbon-based current collectors and all-carbon positive electrodes are able to deliver more advantages in energy storage behaviors in comparison with the traditional positive electrodes with metal Mo current collectors. Such novel strategy promises a new route for fabricating high-performance positive electrodes for stable advanced aluminium batteries.