Preparation And Li-O₂Battery Cathode Performance Of Cuprous Oxide Catalyst

Despite the remarkable theoretic specific capacity (3860mAh/g), Lithium AirBattery (LAB) for now has its own disadvantages like low cycling life, high chargeand discharge overpotentials and so forth. It is believed that cathode catalyticmaterials are responsible for the poor performance. These lead to require importanceon exploring LAB cathode catalysts.In this work, the properties of Cu2O catalysts on electrocatalysis have beeninvestigated. Three different approaches have been employed to prepare Cu2O withvaried features. Meanwhile, a number of measurements have been utilized to studythe properties and electrochemical performances of Cu2O.Among the regular cubic Cu2O catalyst prepared by constant currentelectrodeposition method, samples synthesized under a15s show the bestperformance. The Cu2O materials are able to catalyze LAB to run more than100cycles without capacity fading.For the Cu2O hydrothermal synthesis, the addition of NaCl are favorable theformation of cubic Cu2O. These Cu2O, under a charge and discharge rate of1C, canmaintain80cycles before the capacity collapses. Moreover, the size of Cu2O cubesdecreaed with seed crystal in hydrothermal synthesis.The longer the processproceeds, the smaller the particles will be, resulting in a more serious reunion ofCu2O. According to our work, a5s seed crystal could be the best option. Samplesmade by this method, employing a charge and discharge rate of1C, have created arecord of70cycles with stable capacity.For the potentiosatic deposition of Cu2O, Cu2O form a layer of thin film inCu(NO3)2. And Cu2O from Cu(Ac)2can be a relatively larger polyhedron. Thestability and performance of Cu2O made from Cu(NO3)2are much better. Limitingthe capacity as1000mAh/g, charge and discharge rate as0.5C, the reversiblecapacity of Cu2O made from Cu(Ac)2can be reduced to800mAh/g, and at the sametime, the reversible capacity of the other system (Cu(NO3)2stays1000mAh/g. Whenthe charge and discharge rate is set as0.2C, Cu2O made from Cu(NO3)2is able tocycle for over120cycles with a stable capacity.