Antimony oxychloride embedded graphene nanocomposite as efficient cathode material for chloride ion batteries

Rechargeable batteries based on an anion shuttle, for example, chloride or fluoride battery that operates at room temperature, have recently been gaining increasing attention as potential future power sources. Here we demonstrate, for the first time, the utilization of antimony oxychloride (Sb4O5Cl2) as a new cathode material for non-aqueous chloride ion batteries. We show that Sb4O5Cl2 microstructures uniformly embedded in a graphene aerogel matrix (Sb4O5Cl2/graphene aerogel), resulting in completely interconnecting structures, exhibit enhanced electrochemical performance as cathode material for non-aqueous chloride ion battery. The electrode delivers a stable capacity of similar to 100 mAh g(-1) for initial 25 cycles that could retain a specific discharge capacity of similar to 65 mAh g(-1) after 100 cycles which makes it one of the promising cathode materials with long cycle life for chloride ion batteries, when cycled against lithium. We employ various ex-situ measurements to unveil the electrochemical reaction mechanism.