An ultra stable amorphous Al-Ni-Ce alloy anode for aqueous aluminum metal batteries

The development of aqueous aluminum metal batteries is hampered by severe parasitic side reactions at the aluminum metal anode/electrolyte interface. In this work, aluminum-based amorphous alloy anodes are applied to aqueous aluminum metal batteries for the first time. Amorphous aluminum alloys exhibit higher adsorption energy for Al atoms and can regulate the Al 3 + deposition potential, thereby offering a kinetic advantage over the hydrogen evolution reaction. Their isotropic deposition behavior suppresses aluminum dendrite growth, while the amorphous structure also improves interfacial chemistry, mitigating anode self-corrosion and passivation. The coupling between the adsorbed atoms and the Al 85 Ni 10 Ce 5 substrate electrons is stronger, leading to more stable adsorption. Symmetric cells assembled with Al 85 Ni 10 Ce 5 amorphous alloys demonstrated stable cycling for 5000 h, which present the best cycling performance for bare anode for aqueous aluminum metal batteries at 0.1 mA cm −2 and 0.1 mAh cm −2 . Moreover, a full cell incorporating this anode with a K 2 CoFe(CN) 6 cathode delivered a high initial discharge capacity of 98.3 mAh g −1 . This work provides not only a scalable strategy for high performance aqueous aluminum metal batteries, but also theoretical guidance for the electrode optimization of other metal battery systems.