Current collectors corrosion behaviours and rechargeability of TiO2 in Aqueous Electrolyte Aluminium-ion batteries

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. 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−1 initial discharge capacity at a current density of 3 A g−1, 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.