Photo-enhanced lithium-ion batteries using metal-organic frameworks

• Published in: Nanoscale 2023-02, Vol.15 (8), p.4-45
• Main Authors: Andersen, Holly, Lu, Yinan, Borowiec, Joanna, Parkin, Ivan P, De Volder, Michael, Deka Boruah, Buddha
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Charge transfer; Charging; Chemistry; Electrochemical analysis; Electrode materials; Electrodes; Graphene; Illumination; Lithium-ion batteries; Metal-organic frameworks; Optical properties; Rechargeable batteries
• ISSN: 2040-3364; 2040-3372
• DOI: 10.1039/d3nr00257h

The development of photo-enhanced lithium-ion batteries, where exposing the electrodes to light results in higher capacities, higher rate performance or self-charging, has recently gained substantial traction. The challenge in these devices lies in the realisation of photo-electrodes with good optical and electrochemical properties. Herein, we propose copper-hexahydroxybenzene as the active photo-electrode material which both harvests light and stores energy. This material was mixed with reduced graphene oxide as a conductive additive and charge transfer medium to create photo-active electrodes. Under illumination, these electrodes show improved charge storage kinetics resulting in the photo-accelerated charging and discharging performance ( i.e. specific capacities improvement from 107 mA h g −1 to 126 mA h g −1 at 200 mA g −1 and 79 mA h g −1 to 97 mA h g −1 at 2000 mA g −1 under 1 sun illumination as compared to dark). The development of photo-enhanced lithium-ion batteries, where exposing the electrodes to light results in higher capacities, higher rate performance or self-charging, has recently gained substantial traction. We propose copper-hexahydroxybenzene as the active photo-electrode material which both harvests light and stores energy.