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Kinetically Stable Oxide Overlayers on Mo 3 P Nanoparticles Enabling Lithium–Air Batteries with Low Overpotentials and Long Cycle Life
Author(s) -
Kondori Alireza,
Jiang Zhen,
Esmaeilirad Mohammadreza,
Tamadoni Saray Mahmoud,
Kakekhani Arvin,
Kucuk Kamil,
Navarro Munoz Delgado Pablo,
Maghsoudipour Sadaf,
Hayes John,
Johnson Christopher S.,
Segre Carlo U.,
ShahbazianYassar Reza,
Rappe Andrew M.,
Asadi Mohammad
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
advanced materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.707
H-Index - 527
eISSN - 1521-4095
pISSN - 0935-9648
DOI - 10.1002/adma.202004028
Subject(s) - overpotential , tafel equation , oxygen evolution , materials science , electrolyte , lithium (medication) , phosphide , nanoparticle , chemical engineering , water splitting , oxide , inorganic chemistry , catalysis , electrochemistry , nanotechnology , electrode , chemistry , metallurgy , medicine , nickel , endocrinology , biochemistry , photocatalysis , engineering
Abstract The main drawbacks of today's state‐of‐the‐art lithium–air (Li–air) batteries are their low energy efficiency and limited cycle life due to the lack of earth‐abundant cathode catalysts that can drive both oxygen reduction and evolution reactions (ORR and OER) at high rates at thermodynamic potentials. Here, inexpensive trimolybdenum phosphide (Mo 3 P) nanoparticles with an exceptional activity—ORR and OER current densities of 7.21 and 6.85 mA cm −2 at 2.0 and 4.2 V versus Li/Li + , respectively—in an oxygen‐saturated non‐aqueous electrolyte are reported. The Tafel plots indicate remarkably low charge transfer resistance—Tafel slopes of 35 and 38 mV dec −1 for ORR and OER, respectively—resulting in the lowest ORR overpotential of 4.0 mV and OER overpotential of 5.1 mV reported to date. Using this catalyst, a Li–air battery cell with low discharge and charge overpotentials of 80 and 270 mV, respectively, and high energy efficiency of 90.2% in the first cycle is demonstrated. A long cycle life of 1200 is also achieved for this cell. Density functional theory calculations of ORR and OER on Mo 3 P (110) reveal that an oxide overlayer formed on the surface gives rise to the observed high ORR and OER electrocatalytic activity and small discharge/charge overpotentials.