Understanding oxygen electrochemistry in aprotic Li-O2 batteries

In the past decade, the aprotic lithium-oxygen (Li-O-2) battery has generated a great deal of interest because theoretically it can store more energy than today's lithium-ion batteries. Although considerable research efforts have been devoted to the R&D of this potentially disruptive technology, many scientific and engineering obstacles still remain to be addressed before a practical device could be realized. In this review, we summarize recent advances in the fundamental understanding of the O-2 electrochemistry in Li-O-2 batteries, including the O-2 reduction to Li2O2 on discharge and the reverse Li2O2 oxidation on recharge and factors that exert strong influences on the redox of O-2/Li2O2. In addition, challenges and perspectives are also provided for the future study of Li-O-2 batteries. (C) 2017, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co., Ltd.