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Nano Research 2023, 16(5): 6833-6839 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-5359-z
Research Article | Issue | Published: 05 January 2023

In situ TEM visualization of Ag catalysis in Li-O2 nanobatteries

Show Author's Information Yixuan Wen1,2,§,  Shuaijun Ding2,§,  Chongchong Ma1,§,  Peng Jia1,2( ),  Wei Tu2,  Yunna Guo2,  Shuang Guo1,  Wei Zhou1,  Xiaoqian Zhang2,  Jianyu Huang2,  Liqiang Zhang2,  Tongde Shen2( ),  Yuqing Qiao1,2( )
Hebei Key Laboratory of Applied Chemistry, College of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, China
Clean Nano Energy Center, State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, China

§ Yixuan Wen, Shuaijun Ding, and Chongchong Ma contributed equally to this work.

Keywords:
catalyst, Ag nanoparticles, Li-O2 battery, in situ environmental transmission electron microscopy
Topics:
Lithium batteries
Cite this article:
Wen Y, Ding S, Ma C, et al. In situ TEM visualization of Ag catalysis in Li-O2 nanobatteries. Nano Research, 2023, 16(5): 6833-6839. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-5359-z
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Lithium-oxygen (Li-O2) batteries have been considered as an ideal solution to solving the global energy crisis. Silver (Ag) and Ag-based catalyst have been extensively studied due to their high catalytic activities in Li-O2 batteries. However, it remains a challenge to track the catalytic mechanism during the charge/discharge process. Here, a nanoscale processing method was used to assemble a Li-O2 nanobattery in an aberration-corrected environmental transmission electron microscope (ETEM), where a single Ag nanowire (NW) was used as catalyst for O2 electrode. A visualization of the lithium ion insertion process during the electrochemical reactions was achieved in this nanobattery. Numerous Ag nanoparticles (NPs) were observed on the surface of the Ag NW, which were covered by the discharge product Li2O2. By simultaneously studying the evolution of the interface and the phase transformation, it can be concluded that these Ag NPs wrapped around Ag NW acted as catalyst during the subsequent charge/discharge reaction. Based on these studies, Ag NPs decorated on porous carbon were synthesized, and it can simultaneously improve the cycling stability (100 cycles) and the maximum specific capacity (17,371 mAh·g−1 at a current density of 100 mA·g−1) in a coin cell Li-O2 battery. This study suggests that nanoscale Ag may be a promising catalyst for Li-O2 battery.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

In situ TEM visualization of Ag catalysis in Li-O2 nanobatteries

Show Author's information Yixuan Wen1,2,§, Shuaijun Ding2,§, Chongchong Ma1,§, Peng Jia1,2( ), Wei Tu2, Yunna Guo2, Shuang Guo1, Wei Zhou1, Xiaoqian Zhang2, Jianyu Huang2, Liqiang Zhang2, Tongde Shen2( ), Yuqing Qiao1,2( )
Hebei Key Laboratory of Applied Chemistry, College of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, China
Clean Nano Energy Center, State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, China

§ Yixuan Wen, Shuaijun Ding, and Chongchong Ma contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

Lithium-oxygen (Li-O2) batteries have been considered as an ideal solution to solving the global energy crisis. Silver (Ag) and Ag-based catalyst have been extensively studied due to their high catalytic activities in Li-O2 batteries. However, it remains a challenge to track the catalytic mechanism during the charge/discharge process. Here, a nanoscale processing method was used to assemble a Li-O2 nanobattery in an aberration-corrected environmental transmission electron microscope (ETEM), where a single Ag nanowire (NW) was used as catalyst for O2 electrode. A visualization of the lithium ion insertion process during the electrochemical reactions was achieved in this nanobattery. Numerous Ag nanoparticles (NPs) were observed on the surface of the Ag NW, which were covered by the discharge product Li2O2. By simultaneously studying the evolution of the interface and the phase transformation, it can be concluded that these Ag NPs wrapped around Ag NW acted as catalyst during the subsequent charge/discharge reaction. Based on these studies, Ag NPs decorated on porous carbon were synthesized, and it can simultaneously improve the cycling stability (100 cycles) and the maximum specific capacity (17,371 mAh·g−1 at a current density of 100 mA·g−1) in a coin cell Li-O2 battery. This study suggests that nanoscale Ag may be a promising catalyst for Li-O2 battery.

Keywords: catalyst, Ag nanoparticles, Li-O2 battery, in situ environmental transmission electron microscopy

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 17 September 2022
Revised: 25 November 2022
Accepted: 27 November 2022
Published: 05 January 2023
Issue date: May 2023

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press 2022

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 22279111), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2021M702756), and the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province (No. B2020203037).

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