Real Li-air batteries for green energy system

Li-air batteries can use air as active material and own super-high energy density, which is a next-generation energy storage device. However, a real Li-air battery can only be achieved when operated in ambient air instead of using O2 stored internally.

To accomplish this, we envision a project to undertake the following specific tasks: (1) Optimize a catalyst system to decompose side discharge products originating from air; (2) Stabilize discharge product Li2O2 from the reactions with H2O and CO2; and (3) select a protective layer for Li anode.

This project includes materials design and synthesis, electrochemical characterization, and in-situ analysis during battery operation.

This project will tell us how to stabilize and protect the battery components from air, and how to deal with unavoidable side products.

This project helps to break through the bottlenecks of Li-air batteries for practical application, and the results can be useful or transferrable to other metal-air batteries.