Aluminium-poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) rechargeable battery with ionic liquid electrolyte
Graphical abstract
Schematic illustration of the charging and discharging reaction of an aluminium-PEDOT battery with imidazolium-based chloroaluminate EMImCl-AlCl3 ionic liquid.
Section snippets
Introduction and broader context
Modern electronic technologies, such as electromobility, medical implants and robotics, are developing at an impressive pace, shaping modern societies by making our world more connected, safer and cleaner. However, reaching the full potential of such technologies heavily relies on the device that is powering them – the battery. Innovations in high-performance energy storage devices is somehow limited since the introduction of lithium batteries in the early 90s [1]. This is mainly because of the
Electro-Polymerisation of PEDOT electrodes
The electro-polymerisation of EDOT was performed by cyclic voltammetry from 0 V to 2.4 V vs. Al|Al(III) in Lewis neutral 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride-aluminium chloride (EMImCl-AlCl3) (χ(EMImCl):χ(AlCl3) = 50 mol-%:50 mol-%) with 0.1 mol dm−3 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT) (Alfa Aesar; 97%) at 100 mV s−1, over 10 cycles at 25 °C according to Schoetz et al. [28]. The polymer was rinsed with monomer-free Lewis neutral EMImCl-AlCl3 after polymerisation to remove residual monomer on the
Characteristic charge and discharge behaviour
The charge and discharge curve for an aluminium-PEDOT battery (Fig. 3) shows several plateaus between 0.5 V and 2.2 V [27]. The open-circuit potential in the fully charged state is 2.1 V. The low potential drop of 100 mV between the charging and starting discharge potential shows the good conductivity of the combination of Lewis neutral EMImCl-AlCl3 in the PEDOT electrode and Lewis acidic EMImCl-AlCl3 at the aluminium electrode, forming a gradient in electrolyte acidity between the electrodes.
Battery charging
Conclusions
This research studied the cycling characteristics and behaviour of a rechargeable aluminium-PEDOT battery in chloroaluminate ionic liquid electrolyte:
- a)
The aluminium-PEDOT battery can be charged and discharged reversibly in the potential window of 0.5–2.2 V.
- b)
The calculated battery characteristic values such as specific energy and power are in the range of 50–64 Wh kg−1 and 32–40 W kg−1.
- c)
The cell reaches a high cycle stability over 100 cycles with a coulombic efficiency ≥95% and shows no
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Theresa Schoetz: Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing. Ben Craig: Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing. Carlos Ponce de Leon: Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing. Andreas Bund: Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing. Mikito Ueda: Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing. Chee Tong John Low: Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing.
Declaration of Competing Interests
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
This study is supported by the Centre for Doctoral Training in Sustainable Infrastructure Systems at the University of Southampton [EP/L01582X/1] and the International Consortium of Nanotechnology of the Lloyd's Register Foundation [G0086]. We thank Dr Richard Pearce from the National Oceanography Centre for his assistance in performing the scanning electron microscopy measurements.
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