Towards Reversible and Moisture Tolerant Aprotic Lithium-Air Batteries

Abstract

The development of moisture-tolerant, LiOH-based non-aqueous Li-O2 batteries is a promising route to bypass the inherent limitations caused by the instability of their typical discharge products, LiO2 and Li2O2. The use of the I−/I3− redox couple to mediate the LiOH-based oxygen reduction and oxidation reactions has proven challenging due to the multiple reaction paths induced by the oxidation of I− on cell charging. In this work, we introduce an ionic liquid to a glyme-based electrolyte containing LiI and water and demonstrate a reversible LiOH-based Li-O2 battery cycling that operates via a 4 e−/O2 process with a low charging overpotential (below 3.5 V versus Li/Li+). The addition of the ionic liquid increases the oxidizing power of I3−, shifting the charging mechanism from IO−/IO3− formation to O2 evolution.