Lithium-air batteries are a step closer to market readiness after researchers made a breakthrough at a German university.
Rechargeable lithium-air batteries could be the next big thing, offering better performance at a lighter weight, theoretically at least.
The problem lies in their cyclability, or lack of it, because a highly reactive singlet oxygen is released during charging which corrodes carbon electrodes and decomposes electrolytic fluid.
Now, for the first time, a team of researchers in the Department of Technical Electrochemistry led by Professor Hubert Gasteiger at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Forschungszentrum Jülich may have detected the reactive substance.
TUM doctoral candidate Johannes Wandt, who is on the team, said that because of a miscalculation the research community mistakenly assumed that the underlying reaction only occurred at high voltages.
“We added molecules to the electrolytic fluid that capture the short-lived singlet oxygen and bond it as a stable radical,” said Wandt.
“Using a special measuring instrument in Jülich for electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy we were able to substantiate the formation of singlet oxygen during the charging process.”
The researchers now hope to find a mechanism to prevent the formation of singlet oxygen during charging in a bid to develop a long-lasting lithium air battery.
One of the most promising approaches to do this is by replacing the lithium-cobalt oxide cathode with carbon particles, said Wandt.
