MAIOSC

Today, the development of energy technologies is essential for our industrialized societies, and a rapid overview of our modern way of life shows how much we are tributary of them. The environmental concerns over the use of fossils fuels and the limited resources have induced great interest in producing electric energy from renewable sources. However these renewable sources need electrical energy storage to smooth out the intermittency of their energy production. In addition, the development of hybrid and electric vehicles accentuate the demand in efficient and low cost electric energy storage. Since their commercial appearance, Li-ion batteries have flooded the energy storage market. Lithium production has doubled in the last ten years. Even though Li reserves are estimated to be quite large, their concentration in specific geographic areas makes Li a strategic metal. Moreover metallic Li cannot be directly used with liquid electrolytes due to safety issues related to the formation of dendrites during Li plating, which may induce short circuits. Consequently large attention has been paid to develop alternative rechargeable devices using metal electrodes. Rechargeable magnesium batteries are currently considered among the most promising candidates for next generation energy storage system because of the following assets high performances, low cost, safety and less environmental impact. The emergence of marketable magnesium battery more efficient than their Li-ion based counterparts cannot succeed without the development of new electrolytes and positive electrode materials outdoing the state of the art. The effective use of divalent cations must go through ground-breaking strategies into those developed for Li, in terms both of the design of the new magnesium salts and of the positive electrode materials adapted to the divalent character. Large scientific advances are necessary in order to propose i) electrolytes that are non-corrosive, electrochemically stable over a wide potential window, allowing the reversibility of the magnesium electrode and ii) positive electrodes exhibiting high capacity and potential enabling high energy density. Thus, the MAIOSC project, "Magnesium Innovative electrolyte and efficient Organic or Sulfur Cathodes", aims to address these scientific challenges and proposes innovative and efficient electrode, organic material and sulfur for positive electrodes and evaluate their performances in a cell coin with magnesium metal as negative. Unlike inorganic active materials, organic electrode materials and sulfur are very well adapted to the divalent character of Mg2+, and constitute a veritable solution in the development of innovative electrodes with high capacities and high cyclability. In MAIOSC project the development of innovating material are coupled with fundamental studies with the aim to understand the magnesium II complexation and its effect on the reactivity at interfaces. Therefore the Mg in situ and operando measurements will be performed on the metal electrode / electrolyte interfaces. Moreover, the innovative materials proposed by of MAIOSC are, environmentally friendly, by using a green chemistry, and allow, in the medium term, the development of commercially available magnesium batteries