Aluminum corrosion–passivation regulation prolongs aqueous batteries life

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 15; no. 1; p. 2922
• Main Authors: Liu, Binghang, Lv, Tianshi, Zhou, Anxing, Zhu, Xiangzhen, Lin, Zejing, Lin, Ting, Suo, Liumin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 04.04.2024; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 147/135; 639/638/161/891; 639/638/161/892; 639/638/440/950; 639/638/675; 639/766/94; Additives; Aluminum; Aqueous solutions; Corrosion; Corrosion currents; Electrochemical corrosion; Electrochemistry; Fabrication; Humanities and Social Sciences; Life span; Lithium; Lithium manganese oxides; Lithium-ion batteries; multidisciplinary; Passivity; Prototypes; Rechargeable batteries; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Side reactions; Titanium dioxide
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-47145-3

Aluminum current collectors are widely used in nonaqueous batteries owing to their cost-effectiveness, lightweightness, and ease of fabrication. However, they are excluded from aqueous batteries due to their severe corrosion in aqueous solutions. Here, we propose hydrolyzation-type anodic additives to form a robust passivation layer to suppress corrosion. These additives dramatically lower the corrosion current density of aluminum by nearly three orders of magnitude to ~10 −6 A cm −2 . In addition, realizing that electrochemical corrosion accompanies anode prelithiation, we propose a prototype of self-prolonging aqueous Li-ion batteries (Al ||LiMn 2 O 4  ||TiO 2 ), whose capacity retention rises from 49.5% to 70.1% after 200 cycles. A sacrificial aluminum electrode where electrochemical corrosion is utilized is introduced as an electron supplement to prolong the cycling life of aqueous batteries. Our work addresses the short-life issue of aqueous batteries resulting from the corrosion of the current collector and lithium loss from side reactions. Aqueous batteries have a short lifespan due to Al current collector corrosion and Li loss from side reactions on the anode. Here, the authors propose a prototype of self-prolonging aqueous Li-ion batteries by introducing hydrolyzation-type anodic additives to regulate Al corrosion-passivation.