Chengyuan Liu,Zhiwei Liu,Hongkun Niu,Cong Wang,Zhaowen Wang,Bingliang Gao,Jingjing Liu,Mark Taylor
We provide a method for preparation of binder-free cathode for rechargeable aluminum-ion batteries (AIBs). Ultrasonicated natural graphite (u-NG) flakes in N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) is drop-casted to a carbon fiber cloth (CFC) to obtain binder-free u-GF@CFC cathode for AIBs. We also provide an in-situ Raman spectral technology and the corresponding in-situ Raman cell to determine the mechanism of intercalation/deintercalation reactions of the chloroaluminate ions at cathode of AIBs. The in-situ Raman spectra are recorded using a Raman spectrometer combined with a potentiostat/galvanostat model electrochemical workstation. • A simple preparation method of a binder-free u-GF@CFC cathode is suggested. • The u-GF@CFC cathode is obtained by drop-casting ultrasonicated graphite flakes on the surface and internal gaps of the carbon fiber cloth. • The method includes the in-situ Raman spectral technology and the corresponding in-situ Raman cell.
Aluminum battery offers a new possibility for low cost and large-scale stationary storage of electricity because it can be made with cheap materials and exhibits high theoretical mass specific capacity and power density. Among many cathodic materials, graphite/graphene may be one of the most promising cathode materials for aluminum-ion battery. A suitable three-dimensional structure of the cathode is an important factor for the high performance of battery. In this paper, a binder-free cathode is prepared by dropcasting small ultrasonicated graphite flakes (u-GF) on carbon fiber cloth (CFC) which provides a three-dimensional network skeleton for the new cathode. Al|EMImCl-1.3AlCl 3 |u-GF@CFC battery exhibits a high discharge specific capacity of ~140 mAh g −1 at 100 mA g −1 . The battery has good rate performance and cycling stability: the capacity still exceeds 100 mAh g −1 at 600 mA g −1 with a high coulomb efficiency of 98% and maintains 60 mAh g −1 at 3000 mA g −1 over 300 cycles.