An Insight into the Electrochemical Activity of Al-doped V<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>
Shaikshavali Petnikota, Rodney Chua, Karunakara Moorthy Boopathi, Rohit Satish, Francesco Bonaccorso, Vittorio Pellegrini, Madhavi Srinivasan
Abstract
We design Al-doped V 2 O 3 (Al x V 2 O 3 ) compounds as cathodes of aluminium battery. A citric acid-assisted simple solid-state synthesis is used to produce Al x V 2 O 3 compounds by heating, at different temperature, a reaction mixture of NH 4 VO 3 , Al(NO 3 ) 3 9H 2 O and citric acid under Ar flow. Al-doping in-between layers and at lattice sites of V 2 O 3 is confirmed by structural, vibrational and chemical analyses. The doped compounds obtained at 600 C and 800 C are confirmed as Al 0.56 V 2 O 3 and Al 0.53 V 2 O 3 corresponding to theoretical capacities 488 and 490 mAh g -1 , respectively, for the extraction of doped Al by considering three electron transfer (Al/Al 3+ ). The as-synthesized Al x V 2 O 3 compounds are tested as cathodes in aluminium battery with 1.0 M AlCl 3 :[EMIM]Cl electrolyte. The electrodes of Al 0.56 V 2 O 3 and Al 0.53 V 2 O 3 exhibited the first charge capacity of 415 and 385 mAh g -1 , respectively. The electrochemical extraction of doped Al is confirmed by comparisons with bare V 2 O 3 control cathodes and post-cycling structural studies. The extraction of doped Al from Al x V 2 O 3 indicates its promising use in high capacity cathode for Al-ion battery.