Carbon nanotube‐supported mixed‐valence Mn3O4 electrodes for high‐performance lithium‐oxygen batteries
Yuting Zhu,
Jing Gao,
Zhongxiao Wang,
Rui Sun,
Longwei Yin,
Chengxiang Wang,
Zhiwei Zhang
Affiliations
Yuting Zhu
Key Laboratory for Liquid-Solid Structural Evolution and Processing of Materials, Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China
Jing Gao
Key Laboratory for Liquid-Solid Structural Evolution and Processing of Materials, Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China
Zhongxiao Wang
Key Laboratory for Liquid-Solid Structural Evolution and Processing of Materials, Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China
Rui Sun
Key Laboratory for Liquid-Solid Structural Evolution and Processing of Materials, Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China
Longwei Yin
Key Laboratory for Liquid-Solid Structural Evolution and Processing of Materials, Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China
Chengxiang Wang
Key Laboratory for Liquid-Solid Structural Evolution and Processing of Materials, Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China
Zhiwei Zhang
Corresponding author.; Key Laboratory for Liquid-Solid Structural Evolution and Processing of Materials, Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China
Lithium–oxygen batteries (LOBs) have extensive applications because of their ultra-high energy densities. However, the practical application of LOBs is limited by several factors, such as a high overpotential, poor cycle stability, and limited rate capacity. In this paper, we describe the successful uniform loading of Mn3O4 nanoparticles onto multi-walled carbon nanotubes (Mn3O4@CNT). CNTs form a conductive network and expose numerous catalytically active sites, and the one-dimensional porous structure provides a convenient channel for the transmission of Li+ and O2 in LOBs. The electronic conductivity and electrocatalytic activity of Mn3O4@CNT are significantly better than those of MnO@CNT because of the inherent driving force facilitating charge transfer between different valence metal ions. Therefore, the Mn3O4@CNT cathode obtains a low overpotential (0.76 V at a limited capacity of 1000 mAh g−1), high initial discharge capacity (16895 mAh g−1 at 200 mA g−1), and long cycle life (97 cycles at 200 mA g−1). This study provides evidence that transition metal oxides with mixed-valence states are suitable for application as efficient cathodes for LOBs.
