Aluminum is focus of Cornell battery research

Researchers at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, say they have been exploring the use of aluminum and zinc to create rechargeable batteries that can make energy storage more affordable. The materials could also provide what the researchers call “a safer and more environmentally friendly alternative to lithium-ion batteries, which currently dominate the market but are slow to charge and have a knack for catching fire.”

The Cornell research effort has been led by Lynden Archer, the Joseph Silbert Dean of Engineering and the James A. Friend Family Distinguished Professor of Engineering at the university.

The group says it previously demonstrated the potential of zinc anode batteries. Now, the researchers have employed a different approach for incorporating aluminum, resulting in rechargeable batteries that offer up to 10,000 error-free cycles.

In early April, the researchers’ paper “Regulating Electrodeposition Morphology in High-Capacity Aluminium and Zinc Battery Anodes Using Interfacial Metal–Substrate Bonding,” was published in the Nature Energy periodical. The paper’s lead author is Jingxu (Kent) Zheng, a Cornell alumnus who currently is a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

“A very interesting feature of this battery is that only two elements are used for the anode and the cathode – aluminum and carbon – both of which are inexpensive and environmentally friendly,” Zheng says. “They also have a very long cycle life. When we calculate the cost of energy storage, we need to amortize it over the overall energy throughput, meaning that the battery is rechargeable, so we can use it many, many times. So, if we have a longer service life, then this cost will be further reduced.”

Among the advantages of aluminum is that it is abundant in the earth’s crust, it is trivalent [has three covalent bonds] and light, and it, therefore, has a high capacity to store more energy than many other metals, say the researchers.

In terms of physical reactions that aluminum can experience, the researchers’ solution was to design a substrate of interwoven carbon fibers that forms a strong chemical bond with aluminum. When the battery is charged, the aluminum is deposited into the carbon structure via covalent bonding.

The aluminum-anode batteries can be reversibly charged and discharged one or more orders of magnitude more times than other aluminum rechargeable batteries under practical conditions, according to the research team.

Co-authors include doctoral students Tian Tang and Yue Deng; master’s student Shuo Jin; postdoctoral researcher Qing Zhao; laboratory manager Jiefu Yin; Xiaotun Liu; and researchers from Stony Brook University and Brookhaven National Laboratory.

The research was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Basic Energy Sciences Program through the Center for Mesoscale Transport Properties, an Energy Frontiers Research Center, hosted at Stony Brook University. The researchers made use of the Cornell Center for Materials Research, which is supported by the National Science Foundation’s Materials Research Science and Engineering Center program.