The Aluminum-Ion Battery: A Sustainable and Seminal Concept?

Abstract

The expansion of renewable energy and the growing number of electric vehicles and mobile devices are demanding improved and low-cost electrochemical energy storage. In order to meet the future needs for energy storage, novel material systems with high energy densities, readily available raw materials, and safety are required. Currently, lithium and lead mainly dominate the battery market, but apart from cobalt and phosphorous, lithium may show substantial supply challenges prospectively, as well. Therefore, the search for new chemistries will become increasingly important in the future, to diversify battery technologies. But which materials seem promising? Using a selection algorithm for the evaluation of suitable materials, the concept of a rechargeable, high-valent all-solid-state aluminum-ion battery appears promising, in which metallic aluminum is used as the negative electrode. On the one hand, this offers the advantage of a volumetric capacity four times higher (theoretically) compared to lithium analog. On the other hand, aluminum is the most abundant metal in the earth's crust. There is a mature industry and recycling infrastructure, making aluminum very cost efficient. This would make the aluminum-ion battery an important contribution to the energy transition process, which has already started globally. So far, it has not been possible to exploit this technological potential, as suitable positive electrodes and electrolyte materials are still lacking. The discovery of inorganic materials with high aluminum-ion mobility—usable as solid electrolytes or intercalation electrodes—is an innovative and required leap forward in the field of rechargeable high-valent ion batteries. In this review article, the constraints for a sustainable and seminal battery chemistry are described, and we present an assessment of the chemical elements in terms of negative electrodes, comprehensively motivate utilizing aluminum, categorize the aluminum battery field, critically review the existing positive electrodes and solid electrolytes, present a promising path for the accelerated development of novel materials and address problems of scientific communication in this field.

First-Principle Insights Into Molecular Design for High-Voltage Organic Electrode Materials for Mg Based Batteries

“…Electrode materials can differ in their redox-active centers-like compounds with oxygen or sulfur atoms, or functional groups. Thus, the search for highperformance electrode materials extends over a huge search space of materials, and much effort was made and will continue to be necessary to explore it further to find new materials leading to improved battery performance (Mohtadi and Mizuno, 2014;Yabuuchi et al, 2014;Kim et al, 2015a;Wang et al, 2015;Muench et al, 2016;Mauger et al, 2017;Leisegang et al, 2019).…”

“…Among all secondary metal ion battery types, only Li ion batteries are widely used, for instance in commercially available lithium cobalt oxide based batteries due to their high energy density. However, lithium as a resource is very unevenly distributed and is relatively scarce, whereas many other metallic elements, which can be used for so-called post-lithium batteries, like sodium (Na), magnesium (Mg), or aluminum (Al) are abundant (Leisegang et al, 2019). Much research effort has therefore been directed to make use of alternative metal ions that could replace Li.…”

Hexagonal Molybdenum Trioxide (h‐MoO3) as an Electrode Material for Rechargeable Aqueous Aluminum‐Ion Batteries

“…Moreover, aluminum is the most abundant metal in the Earth's crust at around 8 wt %. One third of the current demand for aluminum is met by recycling while the energy spent in the production of aluminum metal is three times lower compared with the production of lithium . Therefore, there has been considerable interest in developing Al ion batteries as an alternative technology .…”

“…This would result in a further reduction in size of several electronic devices as the battery requires less space. Therefore, with the same volume of battery an electric vehicle could have 2 to 4 times the range in comparison to commercial batteries . Even though aluminum has a high volumetric capacity and is safe to use as an anode in aqueous electrolytes, unlike lithium, it is prone to corrosion and results in instability and large capacity fade .…”

Research Frontiers in Energy‐Related Materials and Applications for 2020–2030

“…Aqueous based Li-ion, and aqueous metal-ion batteries are the most promising candidates for stationary energy storage since low cost and toxicity are the most important aspects for such applications. [63][64][65] At the same time, the development of theoretically higher energy density technologies, such as Li-S or Li-air systems is most promising for mobility and electronic applications, and all these different technologies should be pursued in parallel. [61,62] Last but not the least, in recent years different metal-ion chemistries such as Zn-ion, Al-ion, and Mg-ion batteries have been proposed as promising technologies for wearable devices.…”