Active cyano groups to coordinate AlCl2+ cation for rechargeable aluminum batteries

Feng Guo, Zheng Huang, Mingyong Wang*, Wei Li Song, Aijing Lv, Xue Han, Jiguo Tu, Shuqiang Jiao

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

57 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Rechargeable aluminum batteries, owing to the abundant Al resources and high safety guarantee, have been exploited as the ideal power sources for large-scale energy storage. However, the application of aluminum batteries is still restricted by the unsatisfactory positive electrodes due to low capacity, electrode variation or poor cycle stability of inorganic materials. As an alternative route for addressing the critical issues, multi-cyano organic molecules are proposed as the positive electrode materials for stable rechargeable aluminum batteries. With the first-principle calculation of the electron distribution, molecular energy levels and theoretical specific capacity, the results suggest that the electron-deficient cyano groups in organic molecules can reversibly coordinate/dissociate with positively charged Al-complex ions (i.e. AlCl2+). According to the molecule design and experiment results, tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ) with high conductivity is identified as the optimized cyano-organic positive electrode material. The as-assembled cell delivers a high specific capacity of 180 mAh g−1 at first cycle and a discharge plateau ~1.6 V, along with long-term operation beyond 2000 cycles and coulombic efficiency of ~100%. The design principle here opens a new platform to utilize stable cyano-organic molecules as positive electrode materials for high-energy-density aluminum batteries, offering opportunities to design and exploit high-performance rechargeable Al-organic batteries.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)250-257
Number of pages8
JournalEnergy Storage Materials
Volume33
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2020

Keywords

  • Cyano-organic molecules
  • Molecule design
  • Organic positive materials
  • Rechargeable aluminum batteries

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