Researchers in Victoria University develops electrolytes suitable for aluminium batteries

Researchers in Victoria University of Wellington under the guidance of Professor Thomas Nann created a new electrolyte for making safer and more environmentally friendly aluminium batteries.

They created this the electrolyte as part of its work on aluminium batteries and researchers from Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Clermont-Ferrand in France joined the team. The electrolyte is a battery part acting as a conductor for electricity.

"This electrolyte will make aluminium batteries cheaper and easier to produce," says Professor Nann, from the School of Chemical and Physical Sciences and the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology at Victoria University of Wellington. "It is more affordable than the ionic liquids currently used in aluminium batteries, and it is also more sustainable, as our electrolyte can be made from plants."

This electrolyte research was a part of a larger project on finding better battery alternatives.  Professor Nann thinks it is a better material for batteries than the current materials like of lithium and cobalt that have many limitations. .

"Lithium and cobalt are potentially dangerous substances," Professor Nann says. "Damage to batteries containing these substances can make them explode. They are also toxic, leading to several deaths every year from children swallowing these batteries. Nor are they easily recyclable, and we are running low on available sources of the raw materials. If we do not find alternate sources of lithium and cobalt, we will eventually run out of the resources we currently use to make batteries."

Professor looks at aluminium as a better alternative for batteries. However, the technology for making aluminium batteries lags behind other battery technology, and not much work has been done in this field. He thinks aluminium is a safer material as it is non-toxic, has no risk of exploding, easily available and also easily and recyclable without any loss of quality.

The professor and his team consider the new electrolyte as just another step towards improving aluminium battery technology and towards the commercial use of aluminium batteries.

Professor Nann and his team have so far tested their electrolyte with a standard graphite-based battery and plans to use it in batteries that are made from better performing materials in the future.