Catalytic performance of oxygen vacancies-enriched h-MoO3 in lithium- oxygen batteries

The development of lithium-oxygen battery was an effective way to alleviate energy crisis, save energy and protect environment. The design of cathode catalyst with high catalytic performance can effectively pro-mote the performance of lithium-oxygen battery. To research the influence of oxygen vacancies on the electrochemical catalytic performance, a novel and effective method was proposed to introduce more oxygen vacancies into MoO3. The h-MoO3 with oxygen-rich vacancies (named MoO3-HTP) was synthesized by using original MoO3 to heat together with NaH2PO4. As the cathode catalyst of lithium-oxygen batteries, MoO3-HTP had a smaller first cycle overpotential of 0.76 V and showed 137 stable cycles under a limited capacity of 500 mAh g-1 at 200 mA g(-1) from the comparison of the MoO3 and MoO3-HT. And MoO3-HTP-based batteries had the lower overpotential of 1.58 V under the first full charge-discharge curves at 200 mA g(-1) and 400 mA g(-1). The excellent conductivity and electrocatalytic performance of MoO3-HTP were put down to the abundance of oxygen vacancies. (C) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The development of lithium-oxygen battery is crucial for mitigating energy crisis, conserving energy, and protecting the environment. This study proposes a novel and effective method to introduce more oxygen vacancies into MoO3, enhancing its electrocatalytic performance and ultimately improving the performance of lithium-oxygen batteries.