Electrochemical and chemical reactivities of titanium oxide-based materials with chloroaluminate ionic liquid electrolyte for aluminium batteries

Societal changes drive the need for new energy storage systems. Forecasts consider that lithium-ion batteries will cease to meet the demand within the next decade. In this regard, the development of new battery technologies is mandatory. That is why, in this work, the aluminium battery system is explored. Investigations are performed on both the electrolyte and the electrode materials. In this study, the aluminium ion intercalation in the electrode material is achieved, using the defect chemistry. Indeed, cationic vacancies within a titanium oxide structure offer favourable insertion sites for a wide variety of ions. However, the battery lifespan is observed to be greatly shortened due to interactions between the electrode material and the ionic liquid used as the electrolyte.