Combined Influence of Meso- and Macroporosity of Soft-Hard Templated Carbon Electrodes on the Performance of Li-O Cells with Different Configurations.

Li-O batteries can offer large discharge capacities, but this depends on the morphology of the discharged LiO, which in turn is strongly affected by the nanostructured carbon used as support in the air cathode. However, the relation with the textural parameters is complex. To investigate the combined effect of channels of different sizes, meso-macroporous carbons with similar mesopore volume but different pore size distribution were prepared from the polymerization of resorcinol-formaldehyde (RF) in the presence of surfactants and micro-CaCO particles.

Mass-transport Control on the Discharge Mechanism in Li-O2 Batteries Using Carbon Cathodes with Varied Porosity.

By comparing carbon electrodes with varying porosity in Li-O2 cells, we show that the effect of electrolyte stirring at a given current density can result in a change from 2D to 3D growth of discharged deposits. The change of morphology is evident using electron microscopy and by analyzing electrode pore size distribution with respect to discharge capacity. As a consequence, carbon electrodes with different textural properties exhibit different capacity enhancements in stirred-electrolyte cells.