Recycling application of Li-MnO₂ batteries as rechargeable lithium-air batteries

Yuxiang Hu; Tianran Zhang; Fangyi Cheng; Qing Zhao; Xiaopeng Han; Jun Chen

doi:10.1002/anie.201411626

Recycling application of Li-MnO₂ batteries as rechargeable lithium-air batteries

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2015 Mar 27;54(14):4338-43. doi: 10.1002/anie.201411626. Epub 2015 Feb 11.

Authors

Yuxiang Hu¹, Tianran Zhang, Fangyi Cheng, Qing Zhao, Xiaopeng Han, Jun Chen

Affiliation

¹ Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (Ministry of Education), Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071 (China).

PMID: 25678148
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201411626

Abstract

The ever-increasing consumption of a huge quantity of lithium batteries, for example, Li-MnO2 cells, raises critical concern about their recycling. We demonstrate herein that decayed Li-MnO2 cells can be further utilized as rechargeable lithium-air cells with admitted oxygen. We further investigated the effects of lithiated manganese dioxide on the electrocatalytic properties of oxygen-reduction and oxygen-evolution reactions (ORR/OER). The catalytic activity was found to be correlated with the composition of Li(x)MnO2 electrodes (0<x<1) generated in situ in aprotic Li-MnO2 cells owing to tuning of the Mn valence and electronic structure. In particular, modestly lithiated Li(0.50)MnO2 exhibited superior performance with enhanced round-trip efficiency (ca. 76%), high cycling ability (190 cycles), and high discharge capacity (10,823 mA h g(carbon)(-1)). The results indicate that the use of depleted Li-MnO2 batteries can be prolonged by their application as rechargeable lithium-air batteries.

Keywords: Li-MnO2 batteries; electrocatalysis; lithium-air batteries; manganese oxide; recycling.