In this work, aluminum current collectors for Li-ion batteries were coated with protection layers made of Al-doped ZnO (ZnO:Al) to prevent the corrosion of aluminum caused by bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide (TFSI-) at 5 V. These thin films of similar to 100 nm thickness were prepared with a facile and scalable sol-gel coating process with subsequent heat treatment by rapid thermal processing (RTP) at 500 degrees C. The ZnO: Al films exhibited the usual hexagonal phase, a homogeneous morphology and a sufficient electronic conductivity. In electrochemical testing, chronoamperometry demonstrated that the protection layer reduces the corrosion of the aluminum current collector 120 times compared with conventional unprotected aluminum. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.