Novel intercalation materials for non-aqueous metal-ion batteries

Abstract

Lithium ion batteries are the widely used battery systems in the field of portable devices like mobile phones, laptops, electric vehicles, camcorders and a lot of other every day commodities. The amount of electronic portable devices is growing and therefore also the demand for lithium ion batteries is increasing. Although there exist enough lithium sources on the earth researchers are anxious to investigate new systems to provide batteries with larger capacities, higher energies and power densities to be able to keep up with the high power demand of a lot of products, which is dependent on both the construction and design as well as the chemistry within a battery system.<br />Recent papers suggest a novel battery system including aluminium instead of lithium as active element undergoing the electrochemical reactions.<br />Benefits like a possible transfer of three electrons per ion and the lower reactivity of aluminium compared to lithium lead to the prospect of cheaper and safer batteries including a higher energy density.<br />In this work experiments were undertaken to investigate two new kinds of aluminium batteries: 1) A non-aqueous aluminium battery consisted of self-made V2O5 nanowires, produced via a hydrothermal method, as working electrode and the ionic liquid electrolyte 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([EMIm]Cl) including AlCl3 2) An aqueous aluminium battery with a TiO2 working electrode and an electrolyte made of a solution of 1 M AlCl3 in water Furthermore were undertaken in situ Raman measurement with a special designed two electrodes in situ Raman cell providing a good signal to noise ratio to investigate the intercalation of aluminium as well as lithium into electrodes made of Graphite, TiO2, Li4Ti5O12 and the commercial V2O5 powder as well as the synthesised V2O5 nanowires.<br />