An all-in-one nanopore battery array

Abstract

A single nanopore structure that embeds all components of an electrochemical storage device could bring about the ultimate miniaturization in energy storage. Self-alignment of electrodes within each nanopore may enable closer and more controlled spacing between electrodes than in state-of-art batteries. Such an 'all-in-one' nanopore battery array would also present an alternative to interdigitated electrode structures that employ complex three-dimensional geometries with greater spatial heterogeneity. Here, we report a battery composed of an array of nanobatteries connected in parallel, each composed of an anode, a cathode and a liquid electrolyte confined within the nanopores of anodic aluminium oxide, as an all-in-one nanosize device. Each nanoelectrode includes an outer Ru nanotube current collector and an inner nanotube of V₂O₅ storage material, forming a symmetric full nanopore storage cell with anode and cathode separated by an electrolyte region. The V₂O₅ is prelithiated at one end to serve as the anode, with pristine V₂O₅ at the other end serving as the cathode, forming a battery that is asymmetrically cycled between 0.2 V and 1.8 V. The capacity retention of this full cell (relative to 1 C values) is 95% at 5 C and 46% at 150 C, with a 1,000-cycle life. From a fundamental point of view, our all-in-one nanopore battery array unveils an electrochemical regime in which ion insertion and surface charge mechanisms for energy storage become indistinguishable, and offers a testbed for studying ion transport limits in dense nanostructured electrode arrays.

Recent Progress in Self‐Supported Metal Oxide Nanoarray Electrodes for Advanced Lithium‐Ion Batteries

“…However, a main drawback of these 3D metal nanoarray electrodes in full cell configurations is that the confined electrolyte environments result in insufficient Li + ion supply and the ion diffusion from bulk electrolyte is too slow to satisfy high‐rate capability. Impressively, Liu et al186 reported a full battery comprising Ru‐nanotube current collectors with V 2 O 5 storage material confined within anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) nanopores, forming a symmetric cell where the LiV 2 O 5 anode and the pristine V 2 O 5 cathode were separated by an electrolyte region, as shown in Figure 16c. When tested in full cell device, this “all‐in‐one” nanopore battery had a capacity of 150 mAh g –1 at 1 C and 70 mAh g –1 at 150 C (1 C = 147mA g –1 , based on the mass of cathodic V 2 O 5 ) with a voltage window from –1 V–1 V. As the voltage window was increased to 0.8 V–1.8 V, the specific capacity of 178 mAh g –1 at 1 C and 82 mAh g –1 at 150 C (normalized by the mass of the anode) was comparable to that of the half cell (Figure 16d).…”

“…d) Rate performance of a symmetric full‐cell device (capacity normalized by cathode V 2 O 5 mass). Inset: Charge and discharge curves at 1 C. Reproduced with permission 186. Copyright 2014, Macmillan Publishers Limited.…”

Understanding the Mechanisms that Affect the Quality of Electrochemically Grown Semiconducting Nanowires

“…AAO is also optically transparent, electrically insulating, thermally and mechanically robust and chemically inert. Nanowire arrays that are grown in AAO template pores are used in many applications such as energy conversion [1], energy-storage devices [2,3], electronics [4], metamaterials [5], optoelectronics [6], photonics [7], and piezoelectrics [8]. Template-assisted electrochemical growth of large-scale nanowire arrays is attractive because they are readily scalable to mass production.…”

Monte Carlo simulations of atomic layer deposition on 3D large surface area structures: Required precursor exposure for pillar- versus hole-type structures

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6] Examples of successful ALD-based functionalization of surface area enhanced (SAE) structures include the protection of semiconductor nanorods against contamination and oxidation, 7 the photo-activation of AAO or carbon nanosheet structures by coating with TiO 2 , 8,9 and the deposition of a cathode material on aluminum nanorods used as current collector in Li-ion batteries. 10,11 To have a better insight in the deposition process and to optimize the process parameters, several analytical and simulation models have been developed to describe the conformal ALD deposition in high aspect ratio structures. Among those, 2D models have been proposed to simulate thermal [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] and plasma-enhanced ALD in trenches.…”