A team of researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology, led by Matthew McDowell, Associate Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Materials Science and Engineering, is using aluminum foil to create batteries with higher energy density and greater stability.
Here are some common types of aluminum foils used in batteries: Plain Aluminum Foil: This is the basic type of aluminum foil used in batteries. It is typically a high-purity aluminum foil without any additional coatings or treatments. Plain aluminum foil provides good electrical conductivity and mechanical support to the electrodes.
Aluminum foil used in battery applications is manufactured through a multi-step process that involves several stages of rolling, annealing, and finishing. Here is a general overview of the manufacturing process for aluminum foil used in batteries: Casting: The process begins with the casting of aluminum ingots or billets.
The research team knew that aluminum would have energy, cost, and manufacturing benefits when used as a material in the battery’s anode – the negatively charged side of the battery that stores lithium to create energy – but pure aluminum foils were failing rapidly when tested in batteries. The team decided to take a different approach.
In summary, low-cost aluminum foils are employed as single-material anodes for Li-ion batteries that can match various commercial cathodes and potentially achieve higher energy densities. The roles of pre-lithiation, phase change, and morphology evolution on commercial Al foil anodes are comprehensively studied in Al||NCM full batteries.
“On top of that, when using a foil directly as a battery component, we actually remove a lot of the manufacturing steps that would normally be required to produce a battery material.” Short-range electric aircraft are in development by several companies, but the limiting factor is batteries.