A high-performance solid-state lithium-oxygen battery with a ceramic-carbon nanostructured electrode

Ceramic lithium-oxygen batteries that use non-flammable and non-volatile electrolyte have the potential to store a large amount of energy in a relatively safe way. However, the performance of this type of battery has been extremely low due primarily to the large ohmic-resistance from a thick electrolyte and the limited triple-phase boundaries (TPBs) in conventional cathodes. In this work, we fabricate a seamless electrolyte-electrode structure by one-step sintering a rather thin Li1.3Al0.3Ti1.7(PO4)(3) (LATP) electrolyte layer (20 um thick) onto a porous LATP substrate. A hierarchical carbon is then grown in the pores of the porous LATP, uniquely forming three-dimensional pathways for the transport of lithium ions, electrons, and oxygen throughout the entire cathode. It is found that the cathodic TPBs are 330 times larger than those of conventional solid-state lithium-oxygen batteries. As a result, the battery is capable of operating in O-2 for over 1174 cycles (similar to 150 days) and for over 450 cycles (75 days) with degradation of < 3% in ambient air when Ru02 and Ni0 are used as the catalysts. Moreover, the charge/ discharge rate reaches as high as 15 mA cm(-2), 2-4 orders of magnitude higher than that of conventional lithium-oxygen batteries. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.