(645a) Long Life Cycle Lithium–Oxygen Battery Using Molybdenum Disulfide Nanoflakes

Mohammad Asadi, Baharak Sayahpour, Amin Salehi-Khojin

Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60607, USA.

 

Abstract:

Today, the world transportation system largely relies on liquid hydrocarbons (e.g., gasoline) which are limited in source and cause severe environmental issues. Although electrical motors are very clean and efficient compared with internal combustion engines, their utilization in transportation units is still pending on the development of electricity storage technologies with comparable power densities to those of liquid hydrocarbons^1â??4. Recently, limited numbers of electric vehicles (EVs) have been manufactured using existing rechargeable battery systems i.e., Li-ion battery. However, this battery technology suffers from low energy density (250 Wh/kg) that needs to be improved by a factor of five to make long distance (at least 500 miles) drive of EVs feasible on a single charge⁴.

Here, we report a rechargeable Lithium-Oxygen (Li-O₂) battery system with an energy density of 1800-2100 Watt-hour per kilogram of catalyst resulting in a driving range of more than 500 miles based on the efficiency of commercial EVs. The Li-O₂ battery cell integrated with molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) nanoflakes as a catalyst and ionic liquid (IL) as an electrolyte preforms remarkably well evidenced by its high round trip efficiency (85%), small discharge/charge polarization gap (~0.8) as well as excellent stability and cyclability tested up to more than 700 cycles. Various in-situ (e.g., Differential electrochemical mass spectroscopy) and ex-situ (e.g., X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy) characterization methods were used to elucidate the cell performance. We believe that this system with excellent reversibility without clogging issue can provide a unique platform to extend the Li-O₂ concept to the real air system (with impurities) and find a solution for EVsâ?? energy storage systems that can operate at much higher efficiency and cyclability than available battery systems.

 

References:

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(2) Armand, M.; Tarascon, J.-M. Building Better Batteries. Nature 2008, 451, 652â??657.

(3) Noorden, R. Van. The Rechargeable Revolution: A Better Battery. Nature 2014, 507, 26â??28.

(4) Bruce, P. G.; Freunberger, S. A.; Hardwick, L. J.; Tarascon, J.-M. Liâ??O2 and Liâ??S Batteries with High Energy Storage. Nat. Mater. 2011, 11, 19â??29.