The anodic behaviors of aluminum current collector for lithium ion batteries were investigated in a series of 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium bis[(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl] amide room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) and EC + DMC electrolytes. It was found that the aluminum corrosion, which occurred in EC + DMC electrolytes containing LiTFSI, was not observed in the RTIL electrolytes. Further research showed that a passive film with amide compounds as main components formed firmly on aluminum surface during the anodic polarization in the RTIL electrolytes, which inhabited the aluminum corrosion. In addition, the additives generally used in the batteries, such as ethylene carbonate, ethylene sulfite and vinyl carbonate, as well as temperature did not obviously affect the aluminum passive film, the oxidation of the RTILs increased at the elevated temperature, which only resulted in the corrosion potential of aluminum in the RTIL electrolytes shifted to more negative potential, a passive film still firmly formed on the aluminum surface to surpassed the further oxidation of the aluminum current collector. Those results lead to a potential for the practical use of LiTFSI salt in the room temperature ionic liquid electrolytes for lithium ion batteries. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.