Current Collectors Corrosion Behaviours and Rechargeability of TiO2 in Aqueous Electrolyte Aluminium-ion Batteries

Abstract

Abstract The effects of current collectors on the battery performance have significant role, especially in aqueous electrolyte Al-ion batteries, as corrosion effects lead to rapid capacity degradation over cycles. To overcome this problem, we present a study investigating the selection of suitable current collectors and their impact on battery performance. Four different current collectors are selected for this purpose: stainless steel (SS), nickel foil (Ni), titanium foil (Ti) and graphite plate (GP). It has been proven by corrosion tests, cyclic voltammetry and charge-discharge studies that GP is the best current collector by minimizing the corrosion effect and H2 evolution reaction (HER). The anatase phase TiO2 used with GP current collector provides a 249 mAh/g initial discharge capacity at a current density of 3A/g, while inferior or no electrochemical activity is observed with Ti, SS, Ni current collectors. The observations here provide insights into the selection of corrosion-resistant current collectors to achieve stable battery performance in the field of aqueous electrolyte Al-ion batteries.