Invited Talks: Transition Metal Oxides - University Blog Service - The ...

The John B. Goodenough Symposium in Materials Science & Engineering –
In Honor of His 90 th Birthday
The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas
October 26-27, 2012
Flowerlike Co 3 O 4 particles Loaded with Copper Nanoparticle as a Bifunctional
Catalyst for Lithium-Air Batteries
Wei Yang, Jason Salim, Chunwen Sun, LiquanChen, and Youngsik Kim
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing
100190, China
Email: csun@iphy.ac.cn
Website:
Abstract Body in Space Below:
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The high cost of energy storage and conversion devices such as PEM fuel cells and metal/air batteries
restrains their practical use. For lithium-air battery, another issue that has to be addressed in the current
technology is the limitations of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) during discharging process and oxygen
evolution reaction (OER) during charging process. The sluggish kinetics of ORR and OER in lithium-air
batteries is ascribed to the low efficiency of catalysts. A low-cost and stable electrocatalysts is the solution
to tackle this problem. In this study, we found that porous flowerlike Co 3 O 4 particles prepared by
hydrothermal method and loaded with copper nanoparticles on their surface have shown to be a high
performance and stable bifunctional electrocatalyst for the ORR and OER reactions. The cobalt oxidebased
catalysts show better performance during the discharging and charging process at a current density
of 0.05 mA cm -2 compared with that of the Vulcan XC-72 and close to that of the 50% Pt/carbon-black
catalyst. This electrocatalyst could be used in a metal/air battery or a PEM fuel cell as an efficient and
stable bifunctional catalyst.
5.0
5
4.5
4
Cell Voltage (V)
4.0
V
3.5
3.0
Cell Voltage (V)
3
2
1
50% Pt/C
Vulcan XC-72
2.5
Co 3 O 4
Co 3 O 4 - Cu
2.0
0 2 4 6 8 10
Time (h)
0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400
Capacity (mAHg -1 Co 3 O 4 -Cu )
Figure 1 Comparison of the charge and discharge curves of the prepared lithium-air batteries with various catalysts.
Figure 2 Voltage versus discharge/charge capacity for the lithium-air batteries with the Co 3 O 4 -Cu catalyst at a current density of 0.05 mA cm -2 with the active
catalyst (Co 3 O 4 -Cu) mass loading of 0.5 mg/cm 2 .