Abstract
The sluggish kinetics of CO2 reduction and evolution reaction (CRR and CER) on the Li–CO2 battery cathode seriously hindered its practical application. Rational design of the Ru/C interface is expected to simultaneously decrease the free energy barrier of intermediate species and create a favorable electronic structure, effectively promoting the catalytic reaction kinetics of the CRR and CER. Herein, a 3D self-supporting cellulose carbon aerogel (CCA) with well-defined Ru/C interfaces (Ru@CCA) is synthesized as an advanced CO2-breathing cathode for Li–CO2 batteries. The results show that the energy efficiency significantly improves to 80% with a high discharge capacity of 10.71 mA h cm−2 at 20 µA cm−2, and excellent cyclic stability of 421 cycles at 100 µA cm−2. These outstanding performances are highly competitive compared with state-of-art Li–CO2 cathodes. In addition, the unique interface design strategy is applied to other non-noble metal@CCA cathodes, which confirms the advantages of constructing nanostructure metal/C interfaces for improving the kinetics of CRR and CER. This fundamental understanding of the structure–performance relationship provides new inspiration for designing highly efficient cathode catalysts for Li–CO2 batteries.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 2103681 |
Journal | Advanced Energy Materials |
Volume | 12 |
Issue number | 20 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 26 May 2022 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- 3D self-supporting cathodes
- cellulose carbon aerogels
- Li–CO batteries
- metal/C interfaces
- Ru-based catalysts