Nonaqueous Aluminum Ion Batteries: Recent Progress and Prospects

Aluminum-ion batteries (AIBs) have been a promising energy storage technology beyond lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) benefiting from the high volumetric capacity and low cost of Al metal anode. As the continuous development of the entire battery system, the ionic liquid (IL) electrolytes have served as the foundation of AIBs through plating/stripping the Al reversibly at room temperature. However, the nonaqueous AIBs still must revolve the various technical scientific obstacles, including the scant option of a reliable cathode and the high cost of electrolytes before achieving large-scale application. In order to provide a systematic understanding of research process and prospect of AIBs, we make an overview on the recent progress and optimization methods of cathode materials with different energy storage mechanisms, and the key advances in the engineering of electrolytes. Moreover, the future research perspectives and the key challenges ahead for designing high-performance AIBs are also presented.