Impact Point: Lithium-Air Batteries

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In practice, Li-O2 battery research is still in its early stages. So far, the results in this field have been stymied due to oxygen storage and clogging issues resulting in low energy efficiency (e.g. large potential gap), lack of stability, and inadequate rechargeability of the batteries. Thus, to overcome these challenges, development of efficient catalysts which can simultaneously enhance both ORR and OER kinetics during discharge and charge processes is essential. Among different class of materials, two-dimensional nano-materials are of increasing interest because of their relatively large surface area, which enables faster reaction rates, and their short diffusion path lengths compared to the bulk1–4

Since the very first successful demonstration of a metal oxygen battery based on carbon electrode by Abraham et al.5 in 1996, many efforts have been placed on the advancement of cathode materials based on the fact that increasing carbon surface area increases the specific capacity of the cell.6,7 Further studies revealed that despite the active surface area of cathode materials and in specific carbon electrodes, mesopore volume (2-50 nm) of carbon catalysts used in their air electrodes also plays a vital role in specific capacity of lithium-air systems.8 Later other groups have put many efforts to increase the activity of carbon nanostructures for enhanced catalytic activity and active surface area for Li-air systems leading to evolution of functionalized carboned based materials such as doped carbon materials and reduced carbon materials.9,10

While carbon-based materials have shown promising performance for lithium-air batteries, still they have limited activity in some systems, especially in charge reactions. Thus, the research on two-dimensional materials has been led to other class of materials with high surface to volume ratio but different catalytic properties.

A new class of two-dimensional inorganic materials, called MXenes including transition metal carbides (TMCs), transition metal nitrates (TMNs), and transition metal carbonitrides (TMCNs), have been investigated recently in energy storage applications due to their low metal diffusion barrier on the surface.11

Another class of two-dimensional materials which have been used for lithium-air batteries are metal sulfides which are also named as transition metal chalcogenides. Their high theoretical capacity and higher intrinsic electrical conductivity, electrochemical activity and their low cost make them a promising candidate to be applied as the electrode material in Lithium-air batteries and supercapacitors.12–20

However most of the research has been focused on the two-dimensional materials for cathode electrodes, there are also a few reports in which two dimensional materials has been implemented in other part of the metal air system. In a recent report, Yan et a. 21 utilized hexagonal boron-nitrate, a member of “Boron Nitrates” families with layered structure for lithium anode protection from dendritic corrosion. Hexagonal boron-nitrate also called as “White Graphene” with strong covalent bonds between boron and nitrogen atoms in layers and weak van der Waals forces between layers make this material a highly thermally and chemically stable.22

Two-dimensional transition metal oxide/hydroxides (TMO/TMH) are also classified as another electrode materials due to their higher specific capacitance and catalytic activity compared to carbonaceous materials. The best approach is to synthesize these materials in 0D, 1D, and 2D format to increase the exposed active surfaces23–32.

In overall, two dimensional materials are widely being studied as the promising candidates for lithium-air systems, however still little is known about wining structure which poses both good electronic property and morphology as an ideal candidate for not only cathode but also other components of the system such as anode and solid state electrolyte. This issue is the main motivation of this review paper during the future weeks.

References:

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