Recent Progress of Catalytic Cathodes for Lithium-oxygen Batteries

Abstract

Lithium-oxygen batteries are among the most promising electrochemical energy storage systems, which have attracted significant attention in the past few years duo to its far more energy density than lithium-ion batteries. Lithium oxygen battery energy storage is a reactive storage mechanism, and the discharge and charge processes are usually called oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Consequently, complex systems usually create complex problems, lithium oxygen batteries also face many problems, such as excessive accumulation of discharge products (Li2O2) in the cathode pores, resulting in reduced capacity, unstable cycling performance and so on. Cathode catalyst, which could influence the kinetics of OER and ORR in lithium oxygen (Li-O2) battery, is one of the decisive factors to determine the electrochemical performance of the battery, so the design of cathode catalyst is vitally important. This review discusses the catalytic cathode materials, which are divided into four parts, carbon based materials, metals and metal oxides, composite materials and other materials.