【Frontiers in HaiChuan Chemical Technology】The School of Chemical Engineering at Tianjin University has developed an \"organic dichloro\" electrolyte to advance the widespread practical use of aluminum batteries

Thread Content

Achieving the \"dual carbon\" goals relies on the development and efficient use of renewable energy, with safe and green large-scale energy storage technologies serving as a key support for this effort. A team from the Laboratory of Advanced Carbon and Energy Materials, led by Professor Yang Quanhong from the School of Chemical Engineering at Tianjin University, has developed a new type of low-corrosivity \"organic dichloro\" electrolyte, which removes a major obstacle to the widespread practical use of aluminum metal batteries. The research findings were published on December 4 in the international academic journal Nature Sustainability. 　　Aluminum metal batteries exhibit great potential for development in next-generation energy storage technologies, as the anode material aluminum boasts advantages such as a high theoretical specific capacity, abundant reserves in the Earth’s crust, and low cost. However, the practical application of aluminum metal battery technology has long been constrained by the electrolyte system. Although traditional electrolytes can enable the reversible deposition and dissolution of aluminum, they suffer from issues such as strong corrosivity, high viscosity, high cost, and slow kinetics, which severely reduce the lifespan of battery components and hinder the development of aluminum metal batteries. 　　To address this core challenge, the team innovatively proposed a \"organic dichloro\" solvated electrolyte design strategy, replacing traditional ionic liquids with aluminum chloride or n-propyl ether-based organic systems. By precisely selecting and regulating the solvation capacity of organic solvents, they established a unique \"organic dichloro\" solvated structure. This structure \"confines\" all corrosive chloride ions (Cl-) around aluminum ions (Al3+), thereby significantly reducing the overall corrosivity of the electrolyte. At the same time, this special structure is easy to polarize, thereby ensuring that aluminum batteries can perform repeated charging and discharging cycles in a stable and efficient manner. 　　This breakthrough not only successfully resolved the problem of severe corrosion faced by aluminum metal batteries, but also established a brand-new electrochemical reaction pathway based on cationic active species. This provides a new approach to overcoming the common technical challenges such as corrosion, kinetic sluggishness, and mass transfer limitations that exist in aluminum batteries as well as other multi-valent metal batteries, offering technical support for the industrial application of aluminum metal batteries. 　　The team at the Laboratory of Advanced Carbon and Energy Materials, School of Chemical Engineering, Tianjin University, is dedicated to the research of new materials and devices for energy storage and conversion. This research achievement was accomplished by the team in collaboration with the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. A special review published in the same issue of Nature Sustainability noted: “This work takes aluminum metal batteries a significant step closer to practical application.” ”