Realizing Formation and Decomposition of Li2O2 on Its Own Surface with a Highly Dispersed Catalyst for High Round-Trip Efficiency Li-O2 Batteries

The rapid and effective formation and decomposition of Li2O2 during cycling is crucial to solve the problems associated with the practical limitation of lithium-oxygen (Li-O-2) batteries. In this work, a highly dispersed electrocatalyst with Ru nanoclusters inside the special organic molecular cage (RuNCs@RCC3) through a reverse double-solvent method for Li-O-2 batteries has been proposed for the first time. This RuNCs@ORCC3 shows an effective catalyst enabling reversible formation and decomposition of the Li2O2 at the interface between the Li2O2 and the liquid electrolyte, rather than the sluggish solid-solid interface reactions on commonly used solid catalysts. As a result, the Li-O-2 cells with RuNCs@ORCC3 show enhanced electrochemical performance, including low overpotential (310 mV at a current density of 100 mA g(-1)), high specific capacity (15,068 mAh g(-1)), good rate capability (1,800 mAh g(-1) at a current density of 2.8 A g(-1)), and especially superior cycle stability up to 470 cycles.