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Towards a calcium-based rechargeable battery

Nature Materials volume 15, pages 169–172 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

The development of a rechargeable battery technology using light electropositive metal anodes would result in a breakthrough in energy density1. For multivalent charge carriers (Mn+), the number of ions that must react to achieve a certain electrochemical capacity is diminished by two (n = 2) or three (n = 3) when compared with Li+ (ref. 2). Whereas proof of concept has been achieved for magnesium3,4,5, the electrodeposition of calcium has so far been thought to be impossible6 and research has been restricted to non-rechargeable systems7,8,9,10. Here we demonstrate the feasibility of calcium plating at moderate temperatures using conventional organic electrolytes, such as those used for the Li-ion technology. The reversibility of the process on cycling has been ascertained and thus the results presented here constitute the first step towards the development of a new rechargeable battery technology using calcium anodes.

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Figure 1: Electrochemical characterization of the electrolytes.
Figure 2: Characterization of deposits obtained in 0.3 M Ca(BF4)2 EC:PC at −1.5 V versus Ca2+/Capassivated.
Figure 3: Analysis of the reversibility of the Ca plating/stripping process and stability of the SEI layer.

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Acknowledgements

Authors are grateful to F. Fauth for his assistance during data collection at the ALBA Synchrotron. The authors thank the Toyota Battery Research division at Higashi Fuji (M6) for their financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC) Campus UAB, E-08193 Bellaterra, Catalonia, Spain

    A. Ponrouch, C. Frontera & M. R. Palacín

  2. Toyota Motor Europe, Research and Development 3, Advanced Technology 1, Technical Centre, Hoge Wei 33 B, B-1930 Zaventem, Belgium

    F. Bardé

Authors
  1. A. Ponrouch
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  2. C. Frontera
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  3. F. Bardé
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  4. M. R. Palacín
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Contributions

M.R.P. and F.B. conceived and coordinated the study, A.P. designed, performed and analysed the electrochemical experiments and C.F. analysed diffraction data. All authors discussed the results and A.P. and M.R.P. wrote the paper with contributions from all authors.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to M. R. Palacín.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Ponrouch, A., Frontera, C., Bardé, F. et al. Towards a calcium-based rechargeable battery. Nature Mater 15, 169–172 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4462

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