Study of restricted diffusion of lithium salts in diglyme confined in mesoporous carbons as a model for cathodes in lithium-air batteries.

The Li ion mobility through the porous cathode is a critical aspect in the development of commercial Li-air batteries. The bulk transport properties of lithium salts in organic solvents are not reliable parameters for the design of this type of battery since confinement could significantly modify the transport properties, especially when pore diameters are below 10 nm. In this work, we studied the effect of the carbon mesostructure and surface charge on the diffusion of LiTf and LiTFSI salts dissolved in diglyme, typical electrolytes for lithium-air batteries.

Effect of bimodal mesoporous carbon as PtRu catalyst support for direct methanol fuel cells.

Mesoporous carbons (MCs) with different pore sizes were synthesized and evaluated as a catalyst support for fuel cells. The MCs were obtained from resorcinol-formaldehyde precursors, polymerized in the presence of polydiallyldimethylammonium chloride (cationic polyelectrolyte) as a structuring agent and commercial silica (Sipernat® or Aerosil®) as the hard template. The MC obtained with Aerosil® shows a broad pore size distribution with a maximum at 21 nm.