Electrochemically activated spinel manganese oxide for rechargeable aqueous aluminum battery

Aluminum is a naturally abundant, trivalent charge carrier with high theoretical specific capacity and volumetric energy density, rendering aluminum-ion batteries a technology of choice for future large-scale energy storage. However, the frequent collapse of the host structure of the cathode materials and sluggish kinetics of aluminum ion diffusion have thus far hampered the realization of practical battery devices. Here, we synthesize AlxMnO2·nH2O by an in-situ electrochemical transformation reaction to be used as a cathode material for an aluminum-ion battery with a configuration of Al/Al(OTF)3-H2O/AlxMnO2·nH2O. This cell is not only based on aqueous electrolyte chemistry but also delivers a high specific capacity of 467 mAh g−1 and a record high energy density of 481 Wh kg−1. The high safety of aqueous electrolyte, facile cell assembly and the low cost of materials suggest that this aqueous aluminum-ion battery holds promise for large-scale energy applications.

T he development of renewable energy resources, such as solar and wind power, calls for the corresponding largescale energy storage system 1 . Being widely employed in portable electronics 2 , lithium-ion batteries are among the most successful energy storage systems 1,3 . However, the limited nature of lithium supply makes it challenging to sustainably satisfy all the urgent demands for grid-scale energy storage systems and other applications 1,3,4 . Rechargeable Al batteries emerge as a competitive alternative for post-lithium batteries 5,6 . As typical multi-electron reaction devices 5,7 , the Al-ion batteries possess the potential of higher specific capacity, superior volumetric energy density, and comparable gravimetric energy density to lithium-ion batteries 6,8,9 . Moreover, the high abundancy and easy accessibility of Al resources enable Al-ion batteries to become an ideal candidate for large-scale energy storage system 9 .
Because the standard electrode potential of Al 3+ /Al (−1.68 V) is lower than H + /H 2 , the evolution of H 2 occurs due to the reaction between aluminum foil and aqueous acid or alkali solution. Thus, Al cannot be electrochemically striped or deposited in a common aqueous solution. To be compatible with Al anode, the ionic liquid AlCl 3 /[EMIM]Cl with a wider range of electrochemical active window emerges as the typical electrolyte, which provides a mild corrosive effect on the Al surface to activate the Al striping and plating reaction. However, such type of ionic liquid electrolytes are not preferable for the application in large-scale energy storage systems due to its high cost and potential environmental concerns. Therefore, an alternative nonflammable and low-toxicity aqueous electrolytes for low-cost rechargeable aluminum-ion battery is urgently needed 10,11 .
Another critical issue that limits the application of Al batteries is the low energy density due to the lack of proper cathode materials. Thus far, there are two categories of cathode materials for rechargeable Al batteries. One is the carbon-based materials with high specific surface area such as 3D graphite-foam that can accommodate Al x Cl y − 12-18 . Owing to the ultrafast monovalent reaction kinetics 18 , the 3D graphite-foam delivers a high power density of 3000 W kg −1 12 . At the same time, the monovalent reaction inherently limits the obtainable specific capacity. Among the carbon-based materials, the highest reported specific capacity (graphene nanoribbons on highly porous 3D-graphene foam) was only 148 mAh g −1 13, which is far from practical requirements. The other category of cathode materials can realize trivalent reaction and thus have the potential to achieve high specific capacity, but they suffer from relatively lower redox potentials. It is well known that the strong electrostatic nature of Al 3+ always leads to sluggish kinetics 8,19 , high over-potentials 8,19 , and the eventual collapse of host structure 19,20 . Therefore, to accommodate trivalent Al 3+ , it is essential for the cathode materials to possess weak bond strengths between the host frameworks (namely, moderate polarity). The representatives with moderate polarity are sulfur 19,21 , transition metal sulfides [22][23][24][25][26] , Prussian blue analogues (PBAs) 10,27,28 , and some transition metal oxide (transition metal = V 7,29-31 or Ti 11,32 ). These materials have promoted a relatively reversible trivalent reaction, but with discharge voltages only ranging from 0.3 to 0.8 V can hardly be considered as valid cathode materials. As such, there is an urgent need for the development of cathode materials for Al batteries with high capacity and high redox potential.
Herein, an aqueous rechargeable aluminum-ion battery in the form of Al/Al(OTF) 3 -H 2 O/Al x MnO 2 ·nH 2 O is proposed. This battery chemistry not only realizes reversible ex/insertion of Al 3+ in an aqueous electrolyte, but also for the first time, successfully accomplishes the trivalent reaction at a high redox potential. The Al x MnO 2 ·nH 2 O as a cathode is synthesized by introducing H 2 O and Al 3+ into spinel Mn 3 O 4 in the trivalent cation (Al 3+ ) aqueous solution via an in-situ electrochemical transformation reaction. The cathode material Al x MnO 2 ·nH 2 O imposes a high operation voltage to accommodate Al 3+ ions(1.2 V). In addition, the aqueous electrolyte and crystal water in Al x MnO 2 ·nH 2 O molecule shield the electrostatic interaction between Al 3+ and host frameworks, which enables reversible trivalent reactions. With the aqueous electrolyte Al(OTF) 3 -H 2 O, the Al x MnO 2 ·nH 2 O cathode exhibits a reversible discharge capacity of 467 mAh g −1 with the discharge plateau of 1.2 V. To the best of our knowledge, the present specific capacity and plateau are among the highest values reported for the trivalent reaction cathodes and all the aqueous rechargeable aluminum-ion batteries 33 .

Results
Preparation and characterization of Al x MnO 2 ·nH 2 O. The aqueous aluminum trifluoromethanesulfonate (Al(OTF) 3 ) (5 mol L −1 ) solution was used as the electrolyte. The overall stable window for this aqueous electrolyte was determined as the voltage range of −0.3 to 3.3 V (vs. Al/Al 3+ ) by the method of cyclic voltammetry (CV) as shown in Supplementary Figure 1a. Accordingly, the electrochemical transformation process was conducted in the voltage range of 0.5-1.8 V. Within this voltage range, both the Al(OTF) 3 electrolyte is stabilized and the Al can be striped and plated on the anode side, while Al 3+ can be inserted and extracted from the cathode materials without triggering any side reaction.
Inspired by the reports of spinel-to-layered reaction 34-36 , we design an electrochemical reaction and aim to transform spinel Mn 3 O 4 into layered A x MnO 2 ·nH 2 O in aqueous solution. In detail, Mn 3 O 4 nanoparticles were used as precursors and assembled into a cell with the electrolyte of Al(OTF) 3 -H 2 O (5 mol L −1 ) and anode of Al foil (Al/Al(OTF) 3 -H 2 O/Mn 3 O 4 ) in order to obtain Al x MnO 2 ·nH 2 O. The cell was charged to 1.8 V (vs. Al/Al 3+ ) with a current density of 30 mAh g −1 , and the corresponding charging profile is shown in Supplementary Figure 2c.
To identify the products prepared by the electrochemical transformation, electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and transmission electron microscope-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (TEM-EDS) were carried out to investigate the element identities and valence state of the products. As seen in Fig. 1a-c, the XPS spectra demonstrate the variation of chemical valance state after electrochemical transformation. In the pristine Mn 3 O 4 , the Mn2p3/2 and Mn2p1/2 observed at 640.9 and 652.5 eV are characteristics of Mn (II/III) in Mn 3 O 4 . After electrochemical transformation, Mn2p3/2 and Mn2p1/2 shift higher to 642.9 and 654.4 eV, which is in accordance with the Mn(IV) in MnO 2 37 . As for the O1s, a shoulder peak appears at 533.9 eV, which can be assigned to H-OH 38,39 . The binding energy of 75.0 eV is attributed to Al 3+ that engaged into the host materials. The variation of valance states of Mn and O are further confirmed from the slight intensity variation of oxygen K-edge and manganese L-edge over the thin edge of the sample (Fig. 1e, f). The involvement of crystal water in the framework of materials is proved by the TGA in Fig. 1d. Compared with precursor Mn 3 O 4 , the product shows a more significant weight loss in the range of 50-300°C, resulted from crystal water loss. The TEM-EDS in Fig. 1g-j provides the information on the distribution of Al. Thus, all the results suggest that the products are Al containing manganese dioxide with crystal water, verifying the electrochemical transformation of Mn 3 O 4 → Al x MnO 2 ·nH 2 O.
To further probe the structure of the as-prepared Al x MnO 2 ·nH 2 O, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and TEM were conducted. As shown by XRD and TEM image in Fig. 2a-c, the precursor is nanoparticle with well-faceted surfaces, and its XRD and selected area electron diffraction (SAED, Fig. 2b inset) match well with the pattern of pure spinel Mn 3 O 4 (JCPDS File No. #24-0734). After electrochemical transformation, all the sharp peaks of Mn 3 O 4 vanish except the (101) peak at 18°, indicating pristine spinel phase gradually transforms to the amorphous phase. The morphology of the nanoparticles is mostly preserved (seen in Fig. 2d, e), with slight coarseness emerging and peeling of amorphous layers off the surface of the particles. The elongated spots in SAED in Fig. 2d inset display the ring shapes, confirming the emergence of the amorphous phase again. Meanwhile, the residual peak at 18°in XRD spectrum infers layered structure materials with d spacing of 4.94 Å, which is in accordance with the observation of the exposed (101) point in SAED spectra in Fig. 2d. Furthermore, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) spectra in Fig. 2e shows distinct layered lattice on the edges of the Al x MnO 2 ·nH 2 O particles. Tentatively, it could be speculated that on galvanostatic charging to 1.8 V, the spinel Mn 3 O 4 transforms into Al x M-nO 2 ·nH 2 O with a mixed phase of amorphous and layered structure. Such spinel to layer transition only takes place in charging process, evidenced by the direct discharge products of Mn 3 O 4 nanoparticles in the same electrolyte as shown in Fig. 2f, g, which contains only amorphous layers on the surface of materials without layered structure.
To identify the detailed mixed phase, scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), Z-contrast STEM-high angle annular dark field (STEM-HAADF), and annular bright-field (ABF) on the thin edge region of the Al x MnO 2 ·nH 2 O particles were employed. As shown in Fig. 3b-d, the atomic arrays marked by rectangle clearly indicate spinel and layered phase, respectively, confirming the structure of Al x MnO 2 ·nH 2 O. Together with the evolution of valence state, it is reasonable to conclude that galvanostatic charging in Al(OTF) 3 -H 2 O solution enables the transition of spinel Mn 3 O 4 to a mixed phase of the layer and amorphous structure of Al x MnO 2 ·nH 2 O. It should be noted that the STEM (Fig. 3b-e) image shows some scattered spinel phase retains after electrochemical transformation, but the amount is so little that it cannot be detected by XRD (Fig. 2a).
As we know, the structure transition (of cathode Mn containing material) from layered to spinel originates from the preferred migration of Mn which usually leads to capacity reduction 34,35,40 . Hence, the reverse process from spinel to layered structure seems quite surprising, because it is in the opposite direction to the known spontaneous processes 35 . However, this unconventional behavior of Mn 3 O 4 has been elucidated in the electrochemical cycling process with an aqueous solution of Li, Na, and Mg 34,36 . In that typical process, the Mn 2+ in the tetrahedral sites and some Mn 3+ in octahedral sites dissolve out, while the other Mn 3+ in the octahedral sites are oxidized to Mn 4+ . With the dissolving Mn rearrange into layered birnessite phase 35,41 , strains and defects are induced at the phase boundaries between the layered phase and the original spinel phase, where the water molecular and charge carriers insert into [34][35][36] . As a result, layered birnessite structure A x MnO 2 ·nH 2 O (A = monovalent or divalent metal) with the d spacing of 7.1 Å and lamellar morphology are generated [34][35][36] . This spinel-to-layered process is a complicated formation process of new phase involving structure rearrangement and evolution of valance states 36 , where the water molecular plays an indispensable role.
Based on the knowledge as mentioned above, the structural evolution of the Mn 3 O 4 in aqueous Al(OTF) 3 is similar to the spinel-to-layered process of Li, Na, Mg in aqueous solution, but not exactly the same, because of the marked difference between the mixed phase and birnessite structure. Since the spinel-to-layered transformation process is determined by the efficiency of cations species in the aqueous electrolyte 36 , the formation of this mix phase is a result from the trivalent effect of Al 3+ in the Al(OTF) 3  Besides, owing to the lower formation energy, the Al 3+ is much more likely to intercalate into the vacant site than Na + and Li + , which rationalize the difference in the structure of the Al x MnO 2 ·nH 2 O and birnessite phase formed in Na + , Li + aqueous solution.
Accordingly, the hypothetical mechanism for the formation of Al x MnO 2 ·nH 2 O is illustrated in Fig. 3a and Supplementary This is the first time for spinel-to-layered process reported in the trivalent ions aqueous solution. In stark contrast from the birnessite structure in mono or bivalent ions aqueous solution, this Al x MnO 2 ·nH 2 O shows its unique mixed phase of layered and amorphous structure in the trivalent ions aqueous solution. 15   Benefiting from the high specific capacity and average potential, the Al x MnO 2 ·nH 2 O electrode affords an outstanding energy density of 481 Wh kg −1 .
Other cathode materials for rechargeable aluminum-ion batteries, such as sulfur and metal sulfide materials, exhibit higher initial discharge capacity 19,26,43 . However, the dramatic capacity decay is a still of much concern. By contrast, the Al x MnO 2 ·nH 2 O not only delivers high specific capacity, but also shows good cycling stability. Even after 60 cycles, its discharge capacity retains 272 mAh g −1 with the discharge plateau of 1.2 V. All in all, to the best of our knowledge, Al/Al (OTF) 3 -H 2 O/Al x MnO 2 ·nH 2 O battery exhibits satisfactory comprehensive electrochemical performance that is far superior to other batteries with trivalent reaction cathode materials.
Confirmation of the trivalent mechanism. As inferred, the superior capacity and stability depends on the trivalent reaction and the aqueous electrolyte in Al/Al(OTF) 3  The aqueous HOTF electrolyte is used to identify the Al 3+ contribution in capacity, the ionic liquid AlCl 3 /[BMIM]Cl is used as comparison to demonstrate the influence of the aqueous electrolyte on electrochemical performance as well. The ion species in the comparative samples are listed in Table 1 and the experiment diagram and results are shown in Fig. 5.
In addition to Al 3+ , the H 3 O + with concentration of 3.16 mol L −1 is presented in Al(OTF) 3  If Al 3+ ions are not sufficient in coin cell, how does the electrochemical performance of coin cell change? To clarify this point, the Al/HOTF-H 2 O/Mn 3 O 4 cell was investigated. Considering no Al 3+ resource in HOTF electrolyte, the Al anode must be adopted to help provide a small amount of Al 3+ by dissolving Al foil with the acidic HOTF. As shown in Fig. 5c, e, owing to the dissolved Al 3+ , it shows discharge capacity of 30 mAh g −1 and a charge plateau of 1.4 V which is much closer to the Al/Al(OTF) 3 -H 2 O/Al x MnO 2 ·nH 2 O cell. The results indicate that the trivalent Al 3+ directly lead to the typical charge and discharge behavior.
To further confirm the Al 3+ intercalation occurs during discharge, the TEM-EDS is employed to quantify Al, Mn concentration in the Mn 3 O 4 , Al x MnO 2 ·nH 2 O and the cathode materials after discharge (Supplementary Figure 7). As shown in Table 2, the atomic ratio of Al/Mn is 0.1066 in Al x MnO 2 ·nH 2 O after the formation process, the atomic ratio of Al/Mn increases to 0.5456 after discharge. Since the cathode materials (Al x M-nO 2 ·nH 2 O) are formed in-situ from Mn 3 O 4 precursor and never removed from the cell during the electrochemical performance test, the specific capacity is calculated based on the weight of Mn 3 O 4 . Thus, with the molecular weight of Mn 3 O 4 , the variation of atomic ratio of Al/Mn, the theoretical capacity ascribed to Al 3+ intercalation can be calculated according to the equation: The expected reversible discharge capacity is 462 mAh g −1 , which is in good agreement with our experimental data of 467 mAh g −1 , suggesting the trivalent intercalation of Al 3+ dominants the discharge reaction. On the anode side, weight loss which is in proportion to the discharge depth (Supplementary Table 3), and corrosive pit (Supplementary Figure 8) were observed on the Al foil, implying that the Al 3+ intercalated in the cathode materials are derived from the striping of Al anode.
As for the charging process, there must be extraction of cations or proton generation from cathode side to balance the charge. Taking all possible cations or protons in Al/Al(OTF) 3 -H 2 O/ Al x MnO 2 ·nH 2 O into consideration, the possible reactions are as follows: According to the experiment phenomena, the extraction of Al 3+ (equation (2)) is the main reaction in charging process. Even though Mn 2+ extraction (equation (3)) and proton generation (equation (4)) are also possible during charging, they do not dominate the charge process, the reasons are discussed as follows.
If the extraction of Mn 2+ (equation (3)) dominates the charging process, after charging for 500 mAh g −1 in the 2nd cycle, the cathode should lose 30% Mn in the host materials, and the capacity would decline to 0 after 5 cycles. If the proton Ion liquid (non-aqueous) Al x Cl y − BMIM + generation (equation (4)) is indeed dominating over other reactions, the valence states of Mn and standard potential of cathode/Al would increase along with the charging process. However, in the discharge process, the proton insertion does not take place to lower the valence state of Mn. As a result, the discharge and charge plateau would be higher and higher every cycle. Considering the highest valence of Mn (VII), the highest charging capacity that the cathode can afford is 1300 mAh g −1 , which means the charging process would never survive than 3 cycles. Obviously, neither of the above phenomena occurs in the cycles. Hence, it is reasonable to believe that the extraction of Al 3+ (equation (2)) contributes most to the charging capacity. Indeed, equations (3) and (4)  ARTICLE cause of capacity decay. Thus, suppression of these side reactions is a possible strategy to further enhance the stability of this aqueous aluminum-ion battery.
All the above results infer that the insertion/extraction of trivalent Al 3+ dominates the electrochemical reaction. Besides, the typical electrochemical performance of high capacity and plateaus is mainly attained by the reversible intercalation of trivalent Al 3+ . Furthermore, to probe the benefits of solvent water in aqueous electrolyte Al(OTF) 3 (Table 1). Because the spinel-to-layered reaction only occurs in aqueous solution 32,33,35,37,42 , the hydrous mixed phase Al x MnO 2 ·nH 2 O should not be formed in ionic liquid.
The spinel Mn 3 O 4 displays a capacity of 130 mAh g −1 in its first discharge with a plateau lower than 0.5 V. However, the capacity decreases to 18 mAh g −1 after 20 cycles. Using the same electrolyte (the ionic liquid AlCl 3 /[BMIM]Cl), the Al x MnO 2 ·nH 2 O not only delivers a much higher reversible capacity of 229 mAh g −1 during first discharge, but also maintains the capacity of 55 mAh g −1 after 50 cycles (Fig. 5b, d). The much higher discharge capacity and retention capabilities of Al x MnO 2 ·nH 2 O over spinel Mn 3 O 4 is reasonable due to the superior layered structure for ion intercalation and the shielding effects from crystal water to the electrostatic interaction between the Al 3+ and the host anions.
Nevertheless, the electrochemical performance of the Al x M-nO 2 ·nH 2 O in the ionic liquid AlCl 3 /[BMIM]Cl electrolyte is still much poorer than the Al(OTF) 3 -H 2 O electrolyte (Fig. 5b, d). This phenomenon outstands the merits of the solvent water. Because of its high valent states and small diameter, the Al 3+ is easily trapped in lattice and defects of host materials and extraction of Al 3+ from the cathode materials always lead to striking overpotential, poor cycling ability 8 . This sluggish kinetic is mitigated in this aqueous electrolyte. The charging profiles of the Al/Al(OTF) 3 -H 2 O/ Al x MnO 2 ·nH 2 O (Fig. 5a) and electrochemical transformation (Supplementary Figure 2c) appear to be similar. This suggests that the charging process is similar to the electrochemical transformation process, which is a complicated structural rearrangement of the materials involving H 2 O insertion [34][35][36] . During this process, the Al 3+ is extracted from the cathode material and solvated by water. The solvent H 2 O insert into the host framework and form the crystal water in the cathode materials 35 , which help to shield the strong electrostatic force between Al 3+ and host frame. As a result, the Al 3+ is electrochemically extracted from the Al y MnO 2 ·nH 2 O with much faster kinetics and higher reversible capacity. The AlCl 3 / [BMIM]Cl, on the other hand, provides no water solvent molecular to form crystal water in host frame and displays the sluggish trivalent kinetics. So the cells with AlCl 3 /[BMIM]Cl electrolyte show higher overpotential and lower discharge capacity than that of cells with aqueous electrolyte (Fig. 5b). In addition, the AlCl 3 / [BMIM]Cl is so hygroscopic 31 , that it will tend to consume the crystal water in the Al x MnO 2 ·nH 2 O. The layered structure with crystal water will likely collapse in this ionic liquid, which results in serious decay in the capacity. All the phenomena indicate that the AlCl 3 /[BMIM]Cl is less compatible with the cathode materials with strong bond in host frame. Hence, the different electrochemical performance of Al/Al(OTF) 3 -H 2 O/Al x MnO 2 ·nH 2 O and Al/AlCl 3 ,BMIMCl/Al x MnO 2 ·nH 2 O indicate that the aqueous electrolyte is critical in mitigating the sluggish kinetics of trivalent reaction and maintaining the crystal water in the structure of the cathode.

Discussion
An aqueous rechargeable aluminum-ion battery is assembled with a promising key cathode material Al x MnO 2 ·nH 2 O, prepared through in-situ method of electrochemical transformation from spinel to layered and amorphous mixed phase for the first time. The outstanding energy density, low cost, facile cell assembly along with the important safety implications of an aqueous electrolyte, make this aqueous aluminum-ion battery promising for large-scale energy storage application. Moreover, the strategy of electrochemical transformation and the design of tailoring polarity should lead the way to explore more transition metal oxides as electrode materials and develop cathode materials with higher energy density for rechargeable aluminum-ion batteries.

Methods
Synthesis of the materials and preparation of the Al/Al(OTF) 3  Two types of transparent aqueous electrolytes with the concentration (5 and 3.16 mol L −1 ) were obtained by dissolving Al(OTF) 3 (99%, Acros Chemicals) and trifluoromethanesulfonic acid (HOTF, 99%, Acros Chemicals) into dilute water, respectively. The aqueous electrolyte is identified as Al(OTF) 3   Materials characterization. The Mn 3 O 4 nanoparticles and cathodes for ex-situ tests were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD, Rigaku Ultima IVD/MAX-RB) with Cu Kα radiation (λ = 0.15406 nm) at ambient temperature. For the ex-situ XRD tests, the cathodes were removed from various charge states in the glove box, washed with deionized water and ethanol for three times respectively, and dried in vacuum. The field-emission scanning electron microscopy (HITAS-4800), HRTEM, and energy-dispersive microscopy (Hitachi H-800) were employed to investigate the morphologies, microstructure, and element contention variation of the cathode materials. The HAADF and ABF imaging of STEM was performed using a spherical aberration-corrected electron microscope at an acceleration voltage of 200 kV (JEM-ARM 200F transmission electron microscope). The HAADF and ABF images were taken simultaneously with two detectors of HAADF and ABF imaging which are aligned along the optical axis.
Electrochemical measurements. 2025 coin-type cells were assembled for the electrochemical performance tests using Whatman glass fiber as separator. The cells of various combinations of cathode materials, electrolyte, and anode were simplified as anode/electrolyte/cathode (e.g., Al/Al(OTF) 3  Galvanostatic discharge/charge measurements were conducted on a LAND battery system (CT2001A, Wuhan, China) in the voltage range of 0.5-1.8 V (vs. Al) at 30°C The CV tests were performed on CHI 606D electrochemical workstation. In the electrochemical windows investigations, the glassy carbon electrode (diameter: 2 mm) was used as the working electrode, and Al metal foil was used as the counter electrode, the Ag/AgCl electrode was used as reference electrodes. The CV scan rate is 10 mV s −1 . The symmetric cell was assembled by using Al as cathode and anode, the aqueous Al(OTF) 3 (5 mol L −1 ) as the electrolyte. The current density of galvanostatic cycling for symmetric cell is 0.01 mA cm −2 .
Computational methods. Our geometry optimizations were performed within the Cambridge Serial Total Energy Package (CASTEP), based on density functional theory (DFT). The exchange-correlation functional energy was processed by the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE) function within the generalized gradient approximation (GGA). The cut-off energy used for the plane wave expansion of the wave function was 500 eV. A dense Monkhorst-Pack k-points 3 × 1 × 3 was used for the Brillouin zone. All the compounds were fully relaxed until the differences of the total energy were less than 1.0 × 10 −5 eV, and atomic force were within 1 × 10 −3 eV.
Calculations. The theoretical capacity of Al/Al(OTF) 3 -H 2 O/Al x MnO 2 ·nH 2 O can be calculated according to the equation of C = nF/3.6M. Because the Al x M-nO 2 ·nH 2 O is formed in situ on the cell and never be removed, so the capacity was calculated based on the weight of the precursor Mn 3 O 4 . In the first charge process, the Mn 3 O 4 transformed into Al x MnO 2 ·nH 2 O, and the discharge reaction was as follows: The n is calculated based on the variation of Al/Mn contents in Table 2, and the reduction of per Mn is accompanied by 3(y − x)e − = 3(0.5456 − 0.1066)e − = 1.317e − . Since the capacity was calculated based on Mn 3 O 4 , the charge transfer calculated per Mn 3 O 4 is 3 × 1.317e − = 3.951e − , then the theoretical capacity was calculated as follows: Data availability