title: A Rechargeable Al/S Battery with an Ionic-Liquid Electrolyte.
abstract: Aluminum metal is a promising anode material for next generation rechargeable batteries owing to its abundance, potentially dendrite-free deposition, and high capacity. The rechargeable aluminum/sulfur (Al/S) battery is of great interest owing to its high energy density (1340 Wh kg(-1) ) and low cost. However, Al/S chemistry suffers poor reversibility owing to the difficulty of oxidizing AlSx . Herein, we demonstrate the first reversible Al/S battery in ionic-liquid electrolyte with an activated carbon cloth/sulfur composite cathode. Electrochemical, spectroscopic, and microscopic results suggest that sulfur undergoes a solid-state conversion reaction in the electrolyte. Kinetics analysis identifies that the slow solid-state sulfur conversion reaction causes large voltage hysteresis and limits the energy efficiency of the system.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Bimolecular Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20740, USA.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Bimolecular Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20740, USA.
authors.forename: Xiaogang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Bimolecular Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20740, USA.
authors.forename: Xiwen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20740, USA.
authors.forename: Junkai
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Bimolecular Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20740, USA.
authors.forename: Fudong
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Bimolecular Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20740, USA.
authors.forename: Xiulin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Bimolecular Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20740, USA.
authors.forename: Liumin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Suo
authors.affiliation: Department of Material Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20740, USA.
authors.forename: Alex J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Pearse
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20740, USA.
authors.forename: Sang Bok
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Material Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20740, USA.
authors.forename: Gary W
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Rubloff
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20740, USA.
authors.forename: Karen J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Gaskell
authors.affiliation: Department of Material Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20740, USA. mnoked@gmail.com.|Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20740, USA. mnoked@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Malachi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Noked
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Bimolecular Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20740, USA. cwang@umd.edu.
authors.forename: Chunsheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
keywords: aluminum/sulfur batteries; electrochemistry; ionic liquids; solid-state reactions; sulfur