The liquid structure of a new electrolyte for aluminium batteries

Aluminium ion batteries are of great interest due to growing concerns about stable supply of lithium. Recently, we have developed an aluminium-containing electrolyte based on a liquid coordination complex (LCC), doped with an organic solvent (toluene). This doping step was crucial, and resulted in very significant improvement in cycling stability (repeated reduction and oxidation of aluminium). Despite extensive spectroscopic investigation, we were not able to understand the role of toluene in the system, and how it improves the electrochemical performance. We plan to use neutron scattering to gain detailed understanding of the liquid structure of the electrolyte (doped and undoped), which will underpin further improvements in the electrolyte design.