title: Phenomenological Transition of an Aluminum Surface in an Ionic Liquid and Its Beneficial Implementation in Batteries.
abstract: Aluminum (Al) electrochemical dissolution in organic nonaqueous media and room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) is partially hampered by the presence of a native oxide. In this work, Al activation in EMIm(HF)2.3F RTIL is reported. It was confirmed that as a result of the interaction of Al with the RTIL, a new film is formed instead of the pristine oxide layer. Aluminum surface modifications result in a transformation from a passive state to the active behavior of the metal. This was confirmed via the employment of electrochemical methods and characterization by XPS, AFM, and TEM. It was shown that the pristine oxide surface film dissolves in EMIm(HF)2.3F, allowing an Al-O-F layer to be formed instead. This newly built up layer dramatically restricts Al corrosion while enabling high rates of Al anodic dissolution. These beneficial features allow the implementation of Al as an anode in advanced portable power sources, such as aluminum-air batteries.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering and ‡The Nancy and Stephen Grand Technion Energy Program, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology , Haifa, Israel 3200003.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Shvartsev
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering and ‡The Nancy and Stephen Grand Technion Energy Program, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology , Haifa, Israel 3200003.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gelman
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering and ‡The Nancy and Stephen Grand Technion Energy Program, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology , Haifa, Israel 3200003.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Amram
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering and ‡The Nancy and Stephen Grand Technion Energy Program, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology , Haifa, Israel 3200003.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ein-Eli