Before Saturnose announced the development of its own commercial-grade solid-state rechargeable aluminum ion solid-state battery, many research teams were studying aluminum ion batteries. Among them, the team led by Professor Gao Chao from the Department of Polymer Science and Engineering of Zhejiang University announced a battery design with graphene film as cathode and aluminum as anode in February 201July.
However, the aluminum ion batteries designed by these research teams are in the laboratory stage and cannot be mass-produced and commercialized temporarily. Indeed, many scholars believe that aluminum ion batteries have the potential to replace lithium ion batteries.
Aluminum ion battery and lithium ion battery are very similar in probability, except that it has aluminum anode instead of lithium anode. Judging from the aluminum ion batteries that have been designed in the laboratory, the advantages of aluminum ion batteries are higher capacity density, safer and cheaper, and the raw materials used to manufacture batteries are richer than lithium.
Let's take a look at the technical advantages of aluminum ion batteries.
The volume energy density of this new chemical component exceeds 1500Wh/L, and the weight energy density is expected to reach above 600Wh/kg. According to reports, a set of 150kW solid aluminum ion batteries weighs 565kg, which can provide electric vehicles with a single charging cruising range of 1200km, and can last at least 20,000 charging and discharging cycles (in contrast, the maximum number of lithium ion charging and discharging cycles is 5,000), and can provide stability of 15 years during vehicle use.
Ghayad Eid, founder of Dana Venture Capital Fund, said: "This experiment and research has evolved into an industrial process, transforming aluminum into an alloy with the best electron density."
Ea2I system uses high-energy, altered and disordered rock salt structure as anode, and the prototype is currently being tested. Eid said: "If the current lithium-ion battery can withstand up to 2000 cycles per kilowatt and work at 150℃, then this aluminum ion can withstand at least 5000 cycles per kilowatt, and the working temperature is as high as 350℃, and the cost is much lower."
In the patented Ea2I chemical process, hybrid nanotechnology is used to develop fast charging electrodes and electrolytes, aluminum and niobium are used, and solid electrolytes are used. Ea2I chemistry does not use cobalt or nickel, which will not cause dendrite growth and thermal runaway fire problems of lithium ion batteries, and it is another step towards solid aluminum ion batteries. It is said that this makes it 50% cheaper than lithium-ion battery technology and has higher energy, capacity, cycle and battery life.
At present, the potential of aluminum ion battery has been confirmed many times, but it has not been tested commercially.