Atomic-level modulated selenides lattice for ultra-stable rechargeable aluminum-ion batteries

Rechargeable aluminum-ion batteries (RABs) are promising generation energy storage systems due to their abundance, intrinsic safety, and high energy density. However, the inherently high charge density of aluminum-ion usually leads to the low practical capacity and unsatisfactory stability towards current cathode materials, such as transition metal chalcogenides. To overcome the limitations towards conventional materials, we first-timely propose a series of high-entropy selenides (HESes) with rapid electron transfer efficiency and drastically enhanced lattice tolerance for high-performance RABs. Multi-atomic hybridization effects and broadened the d-band of optimized Multiple high-entropy selenide (MHESe) significantly improve the kinetics process with a high practical capacity (385.0 Wh kg⁻¹ at 808.0 W kg⁻¹) and rate-performance (155.5 mAh g⁻¹ at 10.0 A g⁻¹). More importantly, benefiting from the long-range disordered and intrinsic robust lattice strain field, the newly developed MHESe cathodes achieve one of best long-term stability (over 94.4 mAh g⁻¹ after 10,000 cycles at a high current density of 10.0 A g⁻¹) in RABs. Overall, atomic-level engineered materials with strong lattice distortions and “cocktail effects” through high-entropy engineering pave novel pathways for RABs and next-generation energy storage systems.