Analysis of the Electrocatalytic Activity of Nickelate Oxides As Cathode Electrocatalysts for Li-Air Batteries

Analysis of the
Electrocatalytic Activity of Nickelate Oxides as Cathode Electrocatalysts for
Li-Air batteries

Montserrat Diaz, Ayad Nacy, Samji
Samira and Eranda Nikolla

Department
of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Wayne State University, Detroit,
MI, 48202

Li-air
batteries are among the most promising energy storage technologies due to their
high theoretical energy density (11,680 Wh/kg), rivaling that of gasoline (13,000
Wh/kg).^{[1, 2]} One of the main challenges with Li-air batteries include
the high overpotential losses due to the electrochemical reactions occurring on
the cathode side [2Li + O₂ ↔
Li₂O₂], where precise reaction pathways remain undefined. 
It has been shown that the kinetics of oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution
reactions (ORR and OER) can be improved by incorporating active catalysts on
the cathode surface.^[3]  Among these catalysts, noble metal
nanoparticles (such as gold^[4], platinum^[4] and palladium^[5])
supported on porous carbon cathodes have shown superior performance. However,
these metals are expensive and scarce.  Therefore, the development of cost
effective cathode electrocatalysts for Li-air batteries remains a challenge.

In
this contribution, we show our efforts in designing robust non-precious metal
based heterogeneous catalysts for Li-air cathodes.  We find that the
incorporation of layered nickelate oxide catalysts in Li-air cathodes
significantly increases the decomposition rate of Li₂O₂
during the charging process due to their ability to lower the activation
barrier for the oxygen evolution reaction.^[6]  We have also analyzed
the effect of the chemical composition of nickelate oxides on the activity
toward the electrochemical dissociation of Li₂O₂ with the
aim of tuning their performance. The composition effects on the activity of
nickelate oxides will be discussed.

[1]          Imanishi, N; Yamamoto O. Material Today 2014,
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[2]          Luntz, A. C.; McCloskey, B. D. Chem Rev 2014,
114, 11721.

[3]          Girishkumar,
G.; McCloskley, B.; Luntz, A.C; Sawson, S.; Wilcke, W   J. Phys. Chem. Lett.
2010, 1, 2193-2203

[4]          Lu,
Y. C.; Xu, Z. C.; Gasteiger, H. A.; Chen, S.; Hamad-Schifferli, K.; Shao-Horn,
Y. J Am Chem Soc 2010, 132, 12170.

[5]          Lei,
Y.; Lu, J.; Luo, X. Y.; Wu, T. P.; Du, P.; Zhang, X. Y.; Ren, Y.; Wen, J. G.;
Miller, D. J.; Miller, J. T.; Sun, Y. K.; Elam, J. W.; Amine, K. Nano Lett
2013, 13, 4182.

[6]          Nacy, A.;
Ma, X. F.; Nikolla, E. Top Catal 2015, 58, 513.