High capacity surface route discharge at the potassium-O2 electrode

Discharge by a surface route at the cathode of an aprotic metal-O2 battery typically results in surface passivation by the non-conducting oxide product. This leads to low capacity and early cell death. Here we investigate the cathode discharge reaction in the potassium-O2 battery and demonstrate tha...

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Main Authors: Chen, Yuhui, Jovanov, Zarko P., Gao, Xiangwen, Liu, Jingyuan, Holc, Conrad, Johnson, Lee R., Bruce, Peter G.
Format: Article
Published: Elsevier 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50717/
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author Chen, Yuhui
Jovanov, Zarko P.
Gao, Xiangwen
Liu, Jingyuan
Holc, Conrad
Johnson, Lee R.
Bruce, Peter G.
author_facet Chen, Yuhui
Jovanov, Zarko P.
Gao, Xiangwen
Liu, Jingyuan
Holc, Conrad
Johnson, Lee R.
Bruce, Peter G.
author_sort Chen, Yuhui
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Discharge by a surface route at the cathode of an aprotic metal-O2 battery typically results in surface passivation by the non-conducting oxide product. This leads to low capacity and early cell death. Here we investigate the cathode discharge reaction in the potassium-O2 battery and demonstrate that discharge by a surface route is not limited to growth of thin (<10 nm) metal oxide layers. Electrochemical analysis and in situ Raman confirmed that the product of the cathode reaction is a combination of KO2 and K2O2, depending on the applied potential. Use of the low donor number solvent, acetonitrile, allows us to directly probe the surface route. Rotating ring-disk electrode, electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance and scanning electron microscope characterisations clearly demonstrate the formation of a thick > 1 μm product layer, far in excess of that possible in the related lithium-O2 battery. These results demonstrate a high-capacity surface route in a metal-O2 battery for the first time and the insights revealed here have significant implications for the design of the K-O2 battery.
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spelling nottingham-507172024-08-15T15:29:45Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50717/ High capacity surface route discharge at the potassium-O2 electrode Chen, Yuhui Jovanov, Zarko P. Gao, Xiangwen Liu, Jingyuan Holc, Conrad Johnson, Lee R. Bruce, Peter G. Discharge by a surface route at the cathode of an aprotic metal-O2 battery typically results in surface passivation by the non-conducting oxide product. This leads to low capacity and early cell death. Here we investigate the cathode discharge reaction in the potassium-O2 battery and demonstrate that discharge by a surface route is not limited to growth of thin (<10 nm) metal oxide layers. Electrochemical analysis and in situ Raman confirmed that the product of the cathode reaction is a combination of KO2 and K2O2, depending on the applied potential. Use of the low donor number solvent, acetonitrile, allows us to directly probe the surface route. Rotating ring-disk electrode, electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance and scanning electron microscope characterisations clearly demonstrate the formation of a thick > 1 μm product layer, far in excess of that possible in the related lithium-O2 battery. These results demonstrate a high-capacity surface route in a metal-O2 battery for the first time and the insights revealed here have significant implications for the design of the K-O2 battery. Elsevier 2018-06-15 Article PeerReviewed Chen, Yuhui, Jovanov, Zarko P., Gao, Xiangwen, Liu, Jingyuan, Holc, Conrad, Johnson, Lee R. and Bruce, Peter G. (2018) High capacity surface route discharge at the potassium-O2 electrode. Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, 819 . pp. 542-546. ISSN 1873-2569 Metal-air; Oxygen reduction https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1572665718302108 doi:10.1016/j.jelechem.2018.03.041 doi:10.1016/j.jelechem.2018.03.041
spellingShingle Metal-air; Oxygen reduction
Chen, Yuhui
Jovanov, Zarko P.
Gao, Xiangwen
Liu, Jingyuan
Holc, Conrad
Johnson, Lee R.
Bruce, Peter G.
High capacity surface route discharge at the potassium-O2 electrode
title High capacity surface route discharge at the potassium-O2 electrode
title_full High capacity surface route discharge at the potassium-O2 electrode
title_fullStr High capacity surface route discharge at the potassium-O2 electrode
title_full_unstemmed High capacity surface route discharge at the potassium-O2 electrode
title_short High capacity surface route discharge at the potassium-O2 electrode
title_sort high capacity surface route discharge at the potassium-o2 electrode
topic Metal-air; Oxygen reduction
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50717/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50717/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50717/