Aluminum Batteries—Promising Rechargeable Energy Storage Devices: A Review

Abstract

This review is devoted to the examination of modern literature on aluminum batteries developed in recent years, which have already reached the stage of industrial production. Currently, lithium-ion batteries dominate the market. However, they have serious drawbacks: they are explosive and fire hazardous and also contain rare/expensive components (lithium, cobalt, nickel, electrolyte). Aluminum-ion batteries have advantages over lithium-ion batteries, namely: aluminum is cheap because it is the most widespread metal in the Earth’s crust; aluminum batteries are fire- and explosion-proof. As a result of comparing the “specific energy–specific power” combination for different types of aluminum-ion batteries, it is found that the most favorable combination of specific energy (247 W h/kg) and specific power (44.5 kW/kg) is shown by aluminum-ion batteries consisting of a graphite cathode etched with alkali, an aluminum anode, and an aluminum-chloride-based electrolyte. The highest combinations of specific capacity and current density are demonstrated by aluminum-ion batteries with CoSe cathode: 427 mA h/g at 1 A/g, and those based on MoSe₂: 753 mA h/g at 0.3 A/g. The highest specific energy (685 W h/kg) is achieved by aluminum-ion batteries with CoMnO-cathode. Aluminum-ion batteries are characterized by a very high charging rate: up to 10 000 C (the discharge time 0.35 s) and also very high cyclability—up to 30 000 cycles.