A lithium–oxygen battery with a long cycle life in an air-like atmosphere

A lithium–oxygen battery, comprising a lithium carbonate-based protected anode, a molybdenum disulfide cathode and an ionic liquid/dimethyl sulfoxide electrolyte, operates in a simulated air atmosphere with a long cycle life of up to 700 cycles. Breathing long life into lithium batteries Lithium–air...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 2018-03, Vol.555 (7697), p.502-506
Main Authors: Asadi, Mohammad, Sayahpour, Baharak, Abbasi, Pedram, Ngo, Anh T., Karis, Klas, Jokisaari, Jacob R., Liu, Cong, Narayanan, Badri, Gerard, Marc, Yasaei, Poya, Hu, Xuan, Mukherjee, Arijita, Lau, Kah Chun, Assary, Rajeev S., Khalili-Araghi, Fatemeh, Klie, Robert F., Curtiss, Larry A., Salehi-Khojin, Amin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
119/118
140/131
140/133
639/301/299/891
639/4077/4079/891
Anodes
Anodic protection
Atmosphere
Batteries
Battery cycles
Carbon dioxide
Cathodes
Cathodic protection
Computer applications
Computer simulation
Dimethyl sulfoxide
Electrolytes
Energy
energy storage (including batteries and capacitors), charge transport, materials and chemistry by design, synthesis (novel materials)
Experiments
Humanities and Social Sciences
Ionic liquids
Laboratories
letter
Lithium
Lithium batteries
Lithium carbonate
Lithium-ion batteries
Metal air batteries
Microscopy
Molybdenum
Molybdenum disulfide
multidisciplinary
Nanotechnology
Oxygen
Protective coatings
Rechargeable batteries
Research centers
Science
Side reactions
Spectrum analysis
Transportation applications
Water vapor
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Summary:A lithium–oxygen battery, comprising a lithium carbonate-based protected anode, a molybdenum disulfide cathode and an ionic liquid/dimethyl sulfoxide electrolyte, operates in a simulated air atmosphere with a long cycle life of up to 700 cycles. Breathing long life into lithium batteries Lithium–air batteries could have extremely high energy densities and are therefore attractive successors to the lithium-ion batteries that are currently used in electric vehicles. However, the chemistry involved is complex, with multiple potential (and parasitic) side reactions. These are exacerbated by the relatively low proportion of the 'active' component (oxygen) in a real air mixture as opposed to a pure oxygen feed. This can lead to poor performance relative to the theoretical energy density, as well as degradation with time. Now, Larry Curtiss and colleagues combine appropriate cathodes and electrolytes and protect the lithium anode to create a lithium–air battery that can operate for hundreds of cycles in a realistic air-like atmosphere. This suggests that future development of these batteries may not be restricted to using purified air streams. Lithium–air batteries are considered to be a potential alternative to lithium-ion batteries for transportation applications, owing to their high theoretical specific energy 1 . So far, however, such systems have been largely restricted to pure oxygen environments (lithium–oxygen batteries) and have a limited cycle life owing to side reactions involving the cathode, anode and electrolyte 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 . In the presence of nitrogen, carbon dioxide and water vapour, these side reactions can become even more complex 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 . Moreover, because of the need to store oxygen, the volumetric energy densities of lithium–oxygen systems may be too small for practical applications 12 . Here we report a system comprising a lithium carbonate-based protected anode, a molybdenum disulfide cathode 2 and an ionic liquid/dimethyl sulfoxide electrolyte that operates as a lithium–air battery in a simulated air atmosphere with a long cycle life of up to 700 cycles. We perform computational studies to provide insight into the operation of the system in this environment. This demonstration of a lithium–oxygen battery with a long cycle life in an air-like atmosphere is an important step towards the development of this field beyond lithium-ion technology, with a possibility to obtain much higher specific energy densities than for conv
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/nature25984