A room temperature rechargeable Li2O-based lithium-air battery enabled by a solid electrolyte

Alireza Kondori; Mohammadreza Esmaeilirad; Ahmad Mosen Harzandi; Rachid Amine; Mahmoud Tamadoni Saray; Lei Yu; Tongchao Liu; Jianguo Wen; Nannan Shan; Hsien-Hau Wang; Anh T Ngo; Paul C Redfern; Christopher S Johnson; Khalil Amine; Reza Shahbazian-Yassar; Larry A Curtiss; Mohammad Asadi

doi:10.1126/science.abq1347

A room temperature rechargeable Li₂O-based lithium-air battery enabled by a solid electrolyte

Science. 2023 Feb 3;379(6631):499-505. doi: 10.1126/science.abq1347. Epub 2023 Feb 2.

Authors

Alireza Kondori¹, Mohammadreza Esmaeilirad¹, Ahmad Mosen Harzandi¹, Rachid Amine², Mahmoud Tamadoni Saray³, Lei Yu⁴, Tongchao Liu⁵, Jianguo Wen⁴, Nannan Shan^{2

6}, Hsien-Hau Wang², Anh T Ngo^{2

6}, Paul C Redfern², Christopher S Johnson⁵, Khalil Amine^{5

7

8}, Reza Shahbazian-Yassar³, Larry A Curtiss², Mohammad Asadi¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL 60616, USA.
² Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL 60439, USA.
³ Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607, USA.
⁴ Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL 60439, USA.
⁵ Chemical Sciences and Engineering Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL 60439, USA.
⁶ Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607, USA.
⁷ Material Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
⁸ Institute for Research&Medical Consultations (IRMC), Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University (IAU), Dammam, Saudi Arabia.

PMID: 36730408
DOI: 10.1126/science.abq1347

Abstract

A lithium-air battery based on lithium oxide (Li₂O) formation can theoretically deliver an energy density that is comparable to that of gasoline. Lithium oxide formation involves a four-electron reaction that is more difficult to achieve than the one- and two-electron reaction processes that result in lithium superoxide (LiO₂) and lithium peroxide (Li₂O₂), respectively. By using a composite polymer electrolyte based on Li₁₀GeP₂S₁₂ nanoparticles embedded in a modified polyethylene oxide polymer matrix, we found that Li₂O is the main product in a room temperature solid-state lithium-air battery. The battery is rechargeable for 1000 cycles with a low polarization gap and can operate at high rates. The four-electron reaction is enabled by a mixed ion-electron-conducting discharge product and its interface with air.