Realizing a long lifespan aluminum-ion battery through the anchoring effect between Polythiophene and carboxyl modified carbon nanotube

• Published in: Electrochimica acta 2021-11, Vol.395, p.139212, Article 139212
• Main Authors: Kong, Dongqing, Fan, Haodong, Ding, Xuefei, Hu, Haoyu, Zhou, Li, Li, Bin, Chi, Chunlei, Wang, Xiaoning, Wang, Yesheng, Wang, Xiaohui, wang, Dandan, Shen, Yanxin, Qiu, Zhijian, Cai, Tonghui, Cui, Yongpeng, Ren, Yanguang, Li, Xuejin, Xing, Wei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aluminum; Aluminum-ion batteries; Carbon nanotubes; Carboxylated carbon nanotube; Cathode material; Cathodes; Decay rate; DFT calculation; Electrode materials; Life span; Morphology; Organic materials; Polythiophene; Product safety; Stability; Thin films
• ISSN: 0013-4686; 1873-3859
• DOI: 10.1016/j.electacta.2021.139212

Polythiophene (Pth) is a good candidate cathode material for aluminum ion battery (AIB) because of its lightness, safety, plasticity and flexibility. However, it always manifests inferior stability. Herein, a stable Pth-based cathode is realized through the anchoring effect between Pth and carboxyl. Pth with a thin film morphology is in situ synthesized on the surface of carboxylated carbon nanotubes (CNT-COOH). As a support, CNT-COOH not only alleviates the agglomeration of Pth that provides abundant transport channels for ions and electrons simultaneously, but also enhances the stability of Pth through the anchoring effect. As a result, the prepared Pth/CNT-COOH composite exhibits high discharge capacity (113 mAh g−1 at 1 A g−1), outstanding rate performance (95 mAh g−1 at 5 A g−1) and stable cycle stability (10,000 cycles with 0.001% decay per cycle). This work realizes a promising Pth-based AIBs with high capacity and long lifespan, which paves the way to the applications of organic materials in AIBs.