Hierarchically Porous, Ultrathick, “Breathable” Wood‐Derived Cathode for Lithium‐Oxygen Batteries

• Published in: Advanced energy materials 2018-02, Vol.8 (4), p.n/a
• Main Authors: Song, Huiyu, Xu, Shaomao, Li, Yiju, Dai, Jiaqi, Gong, Amy, Zhu, Mingwei, Zhu, Chunliang, Chen, Chaoji, Chen, Yanan, Yao, Yonggang, Liu, Boyang, Song, Jianwei, Pastel, Glenn, Hu, Liangbing
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Activated carbon; breathable; Catalysis; Catalysts; Cathodes; Electrochemical analysis; Electrolytes; Gaseous diffusion; hierarchically porous; Lithium; Lithium batteries; lithium‐oxygen batteries; Metal air batteries; Microchannels; Oxygen; Porous walls; Ruthenium; Superconductors; wood‐based cathode
• ISSN: 1614-6832; 1614-6840
• DOI: 10.1002/aenm.201701203

In this work, a hierarchically porous and ultrathick “breathable” wood‐based cathode for high‐performance Li‐O2 batteries is developed. The 3D carbon matrix obtained from the carbonized and activated wood (denoted as CA‐wood) serves as a superconductive current collector and an ideal porous host for accommodating catalysts. The ruthenium (Ru) nanoparticles are uniformly anchored on the porous wall of the aligned microchannels (denoted as CA‐wood/Ru). The aligned open microchannels inside the carbon matrix contribute to unimpeded oxygen gas diffusion. Moreover, the hierarchical pores on the microchannel walls can be facilely impregnated by electrolyte, forming a continuous supply of electrolyte. As a result, numerous ideal triphase active sites are formed where electrolyte, oxygen, and catalyst accumulate on the porous walls of microchannels. Benefiting from the numerous well‐balanced triple‐phase active sites, the assembled Li‐O2 battery with the CA‐wood/Ru cathode (thickness: ≈700 µm) shows a high specific area capacity of 8.58 mA h cm−2 at 0.1 mA cm−2. Moreover, the areal capacity can be further increased to 56.0 mA h cm−2 by using an ultrathick CA‐wood/Ru cathode with a thickness of ≈3.4 mm. The facile ultrathick wood‐based cathodes can be applied to other cathodes to achieve a super high areal capacity without sacrificing the electrochemical performance. In this work, a hierarchically porous and ultrathick “breathable” wood‐based cathode for Li‐O2 batteries is implemented. Ruthenium nanoparticles are uniformly anchored on the carbonized and activated wood matrix with an open and aligned structure. The Li‐O2 battery based on the wood‐based cathode shows a high specific area capacity and excellent cycling performance.