Recent progress in cathode catalyst for nonaqueous lithium oxygen batteries: a review

1D semiconductor nanowires for energy conversion, harvesting and storage applications

Lithium-oxygen chemistry offers the highest energy density for a rechargeable system as a "lithium-air battery". Most studies of lithium-air batteries have focused on demonstrating battery operations in pure oxygen conditions; such a battery should technically be described as a "lithium-dioxygen battery". Consequently, the next step for the lithium-"air" battery is to understand how the reaction chemistry is affected by the constituents of ambient air. Among the components of air, CO2 is of particular interest because of its high solubility in organic solvents and it can react actively with O2(-•), which is the key intermediate species in Li-O2 battery reactions. In this work, we investigated the reaction mechanisms in the Li-O2/CO2 cell under various electrolyte conditions using quantum mechanical simulations combined with experimental verification. Our most important finding is that the subtle balance among various reaction pathways influencing the potential energy surfaces can be modified by the electrolyte solvation effect. Thus, a low dielectric electrolyte tends to primarily form Li2O2, while a high dielectric electrolyte is effective in electrochemically activating CO2, yielding only Li2CO3. Most surprisingly, we further discovered that a high dielectric medium such as DMSO can result in the reversible reaction of Li2CO3 over multiple cycles. We believe that the current mechanistic understanding of the chemistry of CO2 in a Li-air cell and the interplay of CO2 with electrolyte solvation will provide an important guideline for developing Li-air batteries. Furthermore, the possibility for a rechargeable Li-O2/CO2 battery based on Li2CO3 may have merits in enhancing cyclability by minimizing side reactions.

Toward a Lithium-‘air’ Battery: The Effect of CO2 on the Chemistry of a Lithium-Oxygen Cell

Defected molybdenum disulfide catalyst engineered by nitrogen doping for advanced lithium–oxygen battery

Recently Li-air batteries have been considered to be a promising candidate for EV and HEV applications due to their exceptionally high energy density. A key factor for the practical application of Li-air batteries is to solve the poor reversibility of nonconductive discharge products, which remains a significant limiting factor for Li-air batteries. Therefore, the air electrode needs to be designed such that it minimizes the undesirable clogging and promotes the electrochemical reactivity. As the control of the morphology and porosity of the electrode greatly affects on the capacity and rate capability, various nanostructured air electrodes have been reported using carbon nanoparticles, graphene, graphene oxide, or carbon nanotubes (CNTs). However, the poor cyclability and low rate capability remain as critical drawbacks of the Li−O2 batteries, and the ideally designed electrode architecture is still awaited.

Enhanced Power and Rechargeability of a Li−O2 Battery Based on a Hierarchical-Fibril CNT Electrode

The widely used Li-ion batteries are insufficient for the rapid needs of high energy storage devices. Li–O2 batteries are regarded as a promising candidate to meet the needs in the future. This tec...

Xiaowen Hao

Papers

Review and Recent Advances in Mass Transfer in Positive Electrodes of Aprotic Li–O2 Batteries

Pore-Scale Prediction of the oxygen effective diffusivity in porous battery electrodes using the random walk theory

A Modeling Study of Discharging Li-O2 Batteries With Various Electrolyte Concentrations