Invited Talk: Carbon Substrates Tuning and Improvement for Rechargeable Lithium-Oxygen Batteries

Notwithstanding more interests state-of-the-art rechargeable lithium oxygen batteries have attracted due to at least 4-fold increase of energy capacities in comparison with current lithium ion batteries, challenges, such as unacceptable round-trip efficiency and poor cyclability urgently demand effective cathode materials to overcome the limitations.  In this report, we have utilized graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) as the cathode substrates that were partially unzipped from multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs).  Moreover, platinum nanoparticles were encapsulated in those two substrates in order to achieve better overpotentials, thus enhance the cyclability in the meantime.  Not only the comparison of the single-cell performance between Pt/GNRs and Pt/CNTs composites, the characterizations are also carried out by an array of techniques, including SEM, TEM, XPS, XRD and Raman spectrum.  Apart from charging – discharging evaluation, the electrochemical activities determined by cyclic voltammetric measurements carried out in the organic electrolytes, correlation between the carbon structure and battery performance, such as initial capacity and cyclability will also be discussed.Notwithstanding more interests state-of-the-art rechargeable lithium oxygen batteries have attracted due to at least 4-fold increase of energy capacities in comparison with current lithium ion batteries, challenges, such as unacceptable round-trip efficiency and poor cyclability urgently demand effective cathode materials to overcome the limitations.  In this report, we have utilized graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) as the cathode substrates that were partially unzipped from multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs).  Moreover, platinum nanoparticles were synthesized and encapsulated in those two substrates in order to achieve better overpotentials, thus enhance the cyclability in the meantime.  Not only the comparison of the single-cell performance between Pt/GNRs and Pt/CNTs composites, the characterizations are also carried out by an array of techniques, including SEM, TEM, XPS, XRD and Raman spectrum.  Apart from charging – discharging evaluation, the electrochemical activities determined by cyclic voltammetric measurements carried out in the organic electrolytes, correlation between the carbon structure and battery performance, such as initial capacity and cyclability will also be discussed.