Sulfide and Carbon Based Cathode Materials for Rechargeable Aluminum Batteries.pdf

1、Rechargeable aluminum batteries (RABs) are amongst the most promising of the post-lithium energy storage systems (ESS) with substantially higher specific volumetric capacity (8046 mAh·cm-3), higher safety and lower cost.

2、The development of such efficient and low cost ESS is of the essence in order to meet future energy storage demands of modem society.In the past decade, the research and development of RABs is propelled enormously, espec

3、ially in the area of cathode materials.A number of cathode materials are reported for RABs, however, no practical cathodes have been achieved so far.Recently, the sulfide and carbon based cathode materials have showed pr

4、omising results for RABs and prospected RABs with better capacities and very stable and long cycle performances.However, it was noticed that sulfide based cathode materials demonstrated high capacities in the start but d

5、eclined sharply after few cycles, secondly, carbon based cathode materials outputted excellent electrochemical performances in RABs but they suffered from limited capacities,complex and high cost synthesis processes, whi

6、ch put question on their commercialization.Therefore, the research title of this thesis is selected as, "Sulfide and Carbon based cathode materials" and research is carried out to mitigate the as-mentioned issues of sulf

7、ide and carbon based cathode materials so that a more practical RAB with high reversible capacity,long cycle life and low cost can be developed.Firstly, a commercial ordered mesoporous carbon (CMK-3) is reported for the

8、first time as a cathode for RABs.The reported battery system has demonstrated excellent electrochemical performance with exceptional long cycle life of more than 14000 reversible cycles with excellent eoulombic efficienc

9、y of 97％.Moreover, Al/CMK-3 battery outputted splendid rate capability and stable performance even at extremely high current density of 3000 mm.g-1 (50 C).The demonstrated battery system has also shown good gravimetric e

10、nergy density of ～45 Wh.kg-1.Such unprecedented results have not been reported for any commercial carbon based cathode material for RABs, the excellent electrochemical performance, low cost and commercial availability of

11、 CMK-3 has made A1/CMK-3 battery more practical and feasible for stationary and distributed energy storage applications.Lastly, copper sulfide (CuS) and its nanocomposite with graphene (CuS/G) is presented,which are succ

12、essfully synthesized by an eloquent solvothermal process and implemented as cathode materials for RABs.It was found that the incorporation of graphene nanosheets with the CuS nanoparticles evidently enhanced the electroc

13、hemical performance than the alone CuS nanoparticles based cathode material.The superior electrochemical performance was resulted due to the graphene which enhanced the conductivity of the bulk of the cathode material an

14、d also restricted the dissolution of the sulfides in the acidic ionic liquid (IL)electrolyte.Consequently, high reversible capacity of 113.2 mAh.g-1 was accomplished at 0.1 C for the CuS/graphene nanocomposite cathode ma