Innovative Technology
A Korean research team has developed a new lithium-oxygen battery that can be charged faster and last longer.
The team led by Kim Dong-wan of Korea University succeeded in developing the technology to be able to expand the lifespan of lithium-oxygen battery five times compared to the existing carbon catalyst batteries and charge the battery in 20 minutes by using molybdenum oxide (MnMoO4) as a catalyst of cathode for the lithium-oxygen battery
The existing lithium-ion batteries are not fit for electric vehicles (EVs) owing to their low energy density. As an alternative, lithium-oxygen batteries are attracting attention due to their high energy density similar to that of gasoline.
The electrocatalysis material used for lithium-oxygen batteries has, however, some weaknesses like short lifespan, taking too long time to charge and energy loss due to over-potentiality of electricity. To address such problems, a different electrocatalysis is needed to resolve oxygen or lithium oxide effectively.
The research team’s idea came from the fact that the cathode catalyst, which plays a role to help the reduction of oxygen and oxidation be repeated when charging and discharging, can activate catalytic activity by controlling the crystallographic defect of oxygen since MnMoO4 has a week metal-oxygen combination.
"The research will contribute to speeding up the commercialization of lithium-oxygen batteries applied to EVs that are in the early stage of development," Kim said.
The research findings were published in the journal "Advanced Energy Materials."