Development of new fully inorganic low temperature (c.a. 100 oC) molten salt electrolytes is necessary for the continued development of safe, low cost sodium battery technologies. The NaI-AlBr3 system is a low melting point, redox active system and is investigated for its electrochemical and physical properties with focus to energy storage considerations. A simple phase diagram was constructed by analyzing different compositions at different temperatures. Electrochemical evaluation of these salt compositions provided a measurement of ionic conductivity and showed lower than expected iodide oxidation current density along with variable diffusion coefficients of reactant. Importantly, reaction kinetics are found to be significantly affected by choice of electrode material where carbon is found to hinder reaction rate as compared to tungsten, potentially dictating battery cell engineering and cost.

Electrochemistry of the NaI-AlBr3 low temperature molten salt system: Implications for applied battery performance

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

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