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Journal of Advanced Ceramics 2023, 12(4): 747-759 https://doi.org/10.26599/JAC.2023.9220717
Research Article | Open Access | Issue | Published: 06 March 2023

Oxygen vacancy-rich MoO3 nanorods as photocatalysts for photo-assisted Li–O2 batteries

Show Author's Information Guiru Sun,  Daming Yang,  Zexu Zhang,  Yan Wang,  Wei Lu,  Ming Feng( )
Key Laboratory of Functional Materials Physics and Chemistry of the Ministry of Education, Jilin Normal University, Changchun 130103, China
Keywords:
oxygen vacancy, photocatalyst, photo-assistance, molybdenum trioxide (MoO3) nanorods, lithium–oxygen (Li–O2) batteries
Cite this article:
Sun G, Yang D, Zhang Z, et al. Oxygen vacancy-rich MoO3 nanorods as photocatalysts for photo-assisted Li–O2 batteries. Journal of Advanced Ceramics, 2023, 12(4): 747-759. https://doi.org/10.26599/JAC.2023.9220717
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Photo-assisted lithium–oxygen (Li–O2) batteries have been developed as a new system to reduce a large overpotential in the Li–O2 batteries. However, constructing an optimized photocatalyst is still a challenge to achieve broad light absorption and a low recombined rate of photoexcited electrons and holes. Herein, oxygen vacancy-rich molybdenum trioxide (MoO3−x) nanorods are employed as photocatalysts to accelerate kinetics of cathode reactions in the photo-assisted Li–O2 batteries. Oxygen vacancies on the MoO3−x nanorods can not only increase light-harvesting capability but also improve electrochemical activity for the cathode reactions. Under illumination, the photoexcited electrons and holes are effectively separated on the MoO3−x nanorods. During discharging, activated O2 is reduced to Li2O2 by the photoexcited electrons from the MoO3−x nanorods. The photoexcited holes can promote the decomposition of Li2O2 during subsequent charging. Accordingly, the photo-assisted Li–O2 batteries with the MoO3−x nanorods deliver an ultralow overpotential of 0.22 V, considerable rate capability, and good reversibility. We think that this work could give a reference for the exploitation and application of the photocatalysts in the photo-assisted Li–O2 batteries.


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About this article

Oxygen vacancy-rich MoO3 nanorods as photocatalysts for photo-assisted Li–O2 batteries

Show Author's information Guiru Sun, Daming Yang, Zexu Zhang, Yan Wang, Wei Lu, Ming Feng( )
Key Laboratory of Functional Materials Physics and Chemistry of the Ministry of Education, Jilin Normal University, Changchun 130103, China

Abstract

Photo-assisted lithium–oxygen (Li–O2) batteries have been developed as a new system to reduce a large overpotential in the Li–O2 batteries. However, constructing an optimized photocatalyst is still a challenge to achieve broad light absorption and a low recombined rate of photoexcited electrons and holes. Herein, oxygen vacancy-rich molybdenum trioxide (MoO3−x) nanorods are employed as photocatalysts to accelerate kinetics of cathode reactions in the photo-assisted Li–O2 batteries. Oxygen vacancies on the MoO3−x nanorods can not only increase light-harvesting capability but also improve electrochemical activity for the cathode reactions. Under illumination, the photoexcited electrons and holes are effectively separated on the MoO3−x nanorods. During discharging, activated O2 is reduced to Li2O2 by the photoexcited electrons from the MoO3−x nanorods. The photoexcited holes can promote the decomposition of Li2O2 during subsequent charging. Accordingly, the photo-assisted Li–O2 batteries with the MoO3−x nanorods deliver an ultralow overpotential of 0.22 V, considerable rate capability, and good reversibility. We think that this work could give a reference for the exploitation and application of the photocatalysts in the photo-assisted Li–O2 batteries.

Keywords: oxygen vacancy, photocatalyst, photo-assistance, molybdenum trioxide (MoO3) nanorods, lithium–oxygen (Li–O2) batteries

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Publication history

Received: 26 October 2022
Revised: 16 December 2022
Accepted: 04 January 2023
Published: 06 March 2023
Issue date: April 2023

Copyright

© The Author(s) 2023.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Jilin Province Science and Technology Department Program (Nos. YDZJ202101ZYTS047, YDZJ202201ZYTS304, 20220201130GX, and 20200201187JC), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 52171210 and 21978110), and the Science and Technology Project of Jilin Provincial Education Department (Nos. JJKH20210444KJ and JJKH20220428KJ).

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