Searching for New Aluminum/Gallium and Electrolyte Combinations for High-Energy Energy Generation Systems
Abstract
"The low energy density of current electrochemical energy storage devices (e.g. lithium-ion batteries) hinders their energy-intensive applications, such as drones and buoys. Therefore, it is critical to develop new and reliable energy storage chemistries to meet the above requirement. Aluminum (Al), with high gravimetric and volumetric energy density (2 times higher than gasoline), is a promising energy storage material. Through breathing O2 from air, the Aluminumair (Al-air) battery can be demonstrated with 5-10 times higher energy density than LIB. MIT will use the Al/Ga alloy as anode and AlCl3/GaCl3 eutectic molten salts (74 oC of liquidus temperature) as electrolyte to develop a highly reversible Al-air battery. In order to lower the overpotentials of Al-air batteries due to the sluggish kinetics of the oxygen redox reactions, MIT will design several effective electrochemical catalysts (e.g. NiO, CoO, RuO, etc.). To further make Al-air battery more practicable, MIT will work on the investigation and development of novel ionic liquids for Al3+ transport at room temperature. Except for the study of materials and chemistry, we will also work on the development and optimization the Al-air hardware, for example using the three-dimensional (3D) printing technique. With above efforts, the expected goal of this proposal is to successfully develop a rechargeable Al-air cell with high energy density (1000 Wh/KgAl), good energy efficiency (>80%) and good cycling performance (70 % retention after 100 cycles)."
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Apr 29, 2020
- Source ID
- N000142012221
Entities
People
- Yang Shao-Horn
Organizations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy