Binder-free ultrasonicated graphite flakes@carbon fiber cloth cathode for rechargeable aluminum-ion battery

Abstract Aluminum battery offers a new possibility for low cost and large-scale stationary storage of electricity because it can be made with cheap materials and exhibits high theoretical mass specific capacity and power density. Among many cathodic materials, graphite/graphene may be one of the most promising cathode materials for aluminum-ion battery. A suitable three-dimensional structure of the cathode is an important factor for the high performance of battery. In this paper, a binder-free cathode is prepared by dropcasting small ultrasonicated graphite flakes (u-GF) on carbon fiber cloth (CFC) which provides a three-dimensional network skeleton for the new cathode. Al|EMImCl-1.3AlCl3|u-GF@CFC battery exhibits a high discharge specific capacity of ~140 mAh g−1 at 100  mA g−1. The battery has good rate performance and cycling stability: the capacity still exceeds 100 mAh g−1 at 600 mA g−1 with a high coulomb efficiency of 98% and maintains 60 mAh g−1 at 3000 mA g−1 over 300 cycles.