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Spatial reticulate polytriphenylamine cathode material with enhanced capacity for rechargeable aluminum ion batteries

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Abstract

Rechargeable aluminum ion batteries (RAIBs) are a very attractive option for large-scale energy storage thanks to their promising theoretical capacity, high energy density, low cost, abundant earth resources, and environmental friendliness. While the cathode materials chosen and prepared are so essential for the electrochemical performance of RAIBs that extensive efforts and research have been done. In this study, the electrochemical performances of RAIBs were optimally improved by the chemical polymerization of triphenylamine to obtain polytriphenylamine (PTPAn) as the cathode material. The polymerization process improved the spatial reticulate structure of triphenylamine, gained a three-dimensional mesh-like nanostructure, which provided more chemical reaction sites and ion reaction channels, greatly increased the specific surface area, and accelerated the electrochemical reaction kinetics. On this basis, a stable discharge-specific capacity of around 137.4 mAh g−1 was achieved at high current densities of 1 A g−1 for the PTPAn cathode, and the Coulombic efficiency was maintained at about 99% after the life of 500 cycles. The understanding and appreciation of the charging and discharging working principle of PTPAn material as RAIBs cathode, meantime, were deepened by a multitude of ex-situ experiments. These findings are anticipated to serve as the cornerstone for the subsequent development of large-scale RAIBs systems for energy storage that use organic polymers as the cathode material.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the support from the Institute of Green Materials and Metallurgy, School of Materials Science and Engineering and Cranfield Tech Futures Graduate Institute of Jiangsu University, the Youth Fund project of Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, and the School of Water, Energy and Environment of Cranfield University.

Funding

This work was supported by the Institute of Green Materials and Metallurgy, Jiangsu University (No. 4023000047, 4023000048), the Youth Fund project of Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (No. BK20200898), and the Incubation Fund of School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangsu University, Scientific Research and Technology Development Project of Hezhou (No. HEKEJI20012).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, China

    Fei Tao, Guokang Wei, Xinqi Xu, Weize Xu, Jianhong Yang, Xin Li & Jia Qiao

  2. Cranfield Tech Futures Graduate Institute, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, China

    Guokang Wei

  3. School of Water, Energy and Environment, Cranfield University, Cranfield, MK43 0AL, UK

    Guokang Wei & Zhenhua Luo

  4. School of Food and Biological Engineering, Hezhou University, Hezhou, 542899, China

    Wei Xie

Authors
  1. Fei Tao
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  3. Xinqi Xu
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  4. Weize Xu
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  8. Xin Li
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  9. Jia Qiao
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Contributions

FT did the investigation and prepared Figs. 1–9.

GW did the data curation and wrote the main manuscript text.

XX and WX (Weize Xu) did the formal analysis and resources parts.

WX (Wei Xie), ZL, JY, XL, and JQ did the supervision and writing – reviewing and editing.

All authors reviewed the manuscript.

All authors have read and approved the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jia Qiao.

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Tao, F., Wei, G., Xu, X. et al. Spatial reticulate polytriphenylamine cathode material with enhanced capacity for rechargeable aluminum ion batteries. Ionics 29, 3619–3627 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11581-023-05096-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11581-023-05096-7

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