| Abstract | The use of metal alloys as negative electrode materials in lithium-ion batteries offers the potential for high lithium storage capacities at low cost, two key aspects for competitive energy storage technologies. Recent work shows that a single piece of aluminum foil can be used as both the negative electrode active material and current collector, and in a full cell configuration, support over 100 cycles without appreciable capacity fade. This breakthrough is due to control of the nucleation and growth of the β-AlLi phase. Many other (higher capacity) Al-Li phases are predicted and can be detected when formed via thermal methods, but are generally not accessible via electrochemical methods. We demonstrated the reversible electrochemical formation of four Li-Al phases (β-AlLi, Al₂Li₃, AlLi₂₋ₓ, Al₄Li₉) by cycling at slightly elevated temperatures (>= 40°C) to overcome nucleation and diffusion barriers. There is a strong need to decouple kinetic (e.g. diffusion) and thermodynamic limits to understand and improve the practical performance of metal alloy electrodes. |
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