1. A High-Performance Li-Al Battery For Electric Vehicles
Mingwei Shang, Yingying Lu, Junjie Niu*
Department of Materials Science & Engineering, UW- Milwaukee

2. Introduction
The challenge for aluminum is the severe pulverization during charging/discharging that limits the rate and cycling performance.

3. Features of Al
Disadvantage
Advantage
The challenge for aluminum is the severe pulverization during charging/discharging that limits the rate and cycling performance.

4. Our strategy
For the first time, a rationally designed yolk-shell configuration that is composed of aluminum nanoparticle as core and an titanium oxide as shell was synthesized.

5. Experimental Process
Schematic diagram of the synthesis process of the designed yolk-shell structure.

6. TEM images of the obtained Al@TiO2.
Characterization
TEM images of the obtained

7. (a) Half-cell battery performance with the original Al and the composite as anode.(b) Battery cyclability test at different charge/discharge rates.

8. Conclusion
The battery with yolk-shell structure displayed 10 C charge/discharge rate with a reversible capacity exceeding 650 mAh/g after 500 cycles, with a 3 mg/cm2 loading. At 1 C, the capacity was ~1200 mAh/g after 500 cycles. The simple method shows great potentials in industrial productions and applications.
The Al particles with size of micrometers are being considered to replace nanoparticles for the Li-Al batteries with a further low cost.

9. Literature cited
Li, S., Niu, JJ., et al. "High-rate aluminium yolk-shell nanoparticle anode for Li- ion battery with long cycle life and ultrahigh capacity." Nature Communications 6 (2015).
Nitta, Naoki., and Yushin, G. "High‐capacity anode materials for lithium‐ion batteries: choice of elements and structures for active particles." Particle & Particle Systems Characterization 3 (2014):
Goodenough, John B., and Kim, Y. "Challenges for rechargeable Li batteries." Chemistry of Materials 3 (2009):

10. Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the UWM Research Growth Initiative (RGI), and UWM start-up.

11. For further information
Prof. Junjie Niu,
Materials Science & Engineering Dept., CEAS
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

12. Thanks