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Emerging technologies, such as Na-ion, Zn-air or Al-based batteries (AIBs), constitute excellent alternatives to more mature energy storage devices like Li-ion batteries. In particular, AIBs offer high energy densities, high cyclability and increased safety. Moreover, aluminium is the most abundant metal in the earth's crust and an advanced industry for its production and recycling has already been developed. Nevertheless, there are significant challenges to overcome regarding AIBs, such as electrolyte optimization and the development of suitable cathodic materials 1,2.
This work describes for the first time the fabrication of an AlB consisting of a hexagonal molybdenum trioxide – carbon nanotubes (h-MoO3@CNT)) cathode and a urea-based electrolyte. This battery combines the high load storage capacity of h-MoO3 3 - with CNT providing large values of conductivity - and an electrolyte capable of moving the ionic species involved in this type of batteries. In contrast to conventional electrolytes, urea is cheap, eco-friendly and non-corrosive. An exhaustive study of the electrochemical behaviour of the battery has been carried out by means of different characterization techniques (charge- discharge curves, cyclic voltammetry, XRD, SEM-EDX and Raman spectroscopy), which allowed us to understand the mechanisms of insertion of the ions in our material and to establish the compatibility between the components that conform the battery. A specific capacity of 100 mAh/g is obtained for current densities of 100 mA/g. Even increasing the current rate up to 500 mA/g, the battery returns capacity values higher than 40 mAh/g with an efficiency above 90% in all cases. These results are very promising as it is the first reported metal oxide that shows compatibility with this type of electrolyte.
- G.A. Elia et al., J. Power Sources 481 (2021) 228870.
- P. Almodóvar et al., ChemElectroChem 7 (2020) 2102.
- P. Almodóvar et al., Electrochim. Acta 365 (2021) 137355.
| Speaker Country | Spain |
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