Invited Presentation: Ionic Liquid-Based Lithium/oxygen Battery

In the last few years, much research effort is being focused on rechargeable lithium–air (O₂) batteries which feature a theoretical specific energy comparable to that of gasoline. While these cutting-edge batteries are at their early stage of development with many challenges to be overcome, they are the most promising candidates to power electric vehicles with long driving range. In the frame of the European LABOHR Project we are investigating the use of hydrophobic ionic liquid (IL)-based electrolytes in these batteries. Basic studies of the oxygen redox reaction in N-butyl-N-methyl pyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide at home-made catalyst-free porous carbon electrode demonstrated that O₂mass transport in IL becomes crucial at the fastest battery discharge rates, which are of interest for automotive applications. The study also demonstrated that it is possible to overcome this limitation by new flow-cell designs, and the main achievements are reported and discussed.

 Acknowledgement

Work funded by the European Commission in the 7^th Framework Programme FP7-2010-GC-ELECTROCHEMICAL STORAGE, under contract no. 265971 “Lithium-Air Batteries with split Oxygen Harvesting and Redox processes” (LABOHR). All the partners of the LABOHR Project are acknowledged for the fruitful discussions on Li/O₂ batteries with ionic liquids.

 References

[1] www.labohr.eu

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[3] F. Soavi, S. Monaco, M. Mastragostino, Journal of Power Sources 224 (2013) 115 – 119.

[4] S. Monaco, F. Soavi, M. Mastragostino, J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 4 (2013) 1379−1382.