Nano-Sized Au Particle-Modified Carbon Nanotubes as an Effective and Stable Cathode for Li-CO2 Batteries

Lithium-carbon dioxide (Li-CO2) batteries show a great potential in the fields of CO2 fixation and energy storage, and moreover the research of Li-CO2 batteries is of great significance to the practical application of Lithium-air (Li-air) batteries. However, the sluggish kinetics and high charging potential causing by the wide band gap insulator Li2CO3 make it extremely important to research cathode catalysts that can promote the decomposition of Li2CO3 and reduce the charge potential. Here, we prepared a composite of Au nanoparticles uniformly distribute on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) network (AuNPs/CNTs) as an efficient cathode catalyst. Benefitted by the small sized Li2CO3 which is easier to decompose during charge process, the AuNPs/CNTs-based batteries exhibit a high specific capacity of 6399 mAh g(-1), a low overpotential of 1.53 V and a stable cycling performance of 46 cycles, demonstrating the conspicuous catalytic performance of AuNPs/CNTs.

Automated summary

The composite of Au nanoparticles uniformly distributed on carbon nanotubes (AuNPs/CNTs) acts as an efficient cathode catalyst to promote the decomposition of Li2CO3 and reduce the charge potential, resulting in high specific capacity, low overpotential, and stable cycling performance in Li-CO2 batteries.