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Defect-induced deposition of manganese oxides on hierarchical carbon nanocages for high-performance lithium-oxygen batteries

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Abstract

The cathode of lithium-oxygen (Li-O2) batteries should have large space for high Li2O2 uptake and superior electrocatalytic activity to oxygen evolution/reduction for long lifespan. Herein, a high-performance MnOx/hCNC cathode was constructed by the defect-induced deposition of manganese oxide (MnOx) nanoparticles on hierarchical carbon nanocages (hCNC). The corresponding Li-O2 battery (MnOx/hCNC@Li-O2) exhibited excellent electrocatalytic activity with the low overpotential of 0.73–0.99 V in the current density range of 0.1–1.0 A·g−1. The full discharge capacity and cycling life of MnOx/hCNC@Li-O2 were increased by ∼86.7% and ∼91%, respectively, compared with the hCNC@Li-O2 counterpart. The superior performance of MnOx/hCNC cathode was ascribed to (i) the highly dispersed MnOx nanoparticles for boosting the reversibility of oxygen evolution/reduction reactions, (ii) the interconnecting pore structure for increasing Li2O2 accommodation and facilitating charge/mass transfer, and (iii) the concealed surface defects of hCNC for suppressing side reactions. This study demonstrated an effective strategy to improve the performance of Li-O2 batteries by constructing cathodes with highly dispersed catalytic sites and hierarchical porous structure.

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Acknowledgements

This work was jointly financed by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Nos. 2018YFA0209100 and 2017YFA0206500), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Nos. 21832003, 21972061, and 21773111) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 020514380237).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Mesoscopic Chemistry of MOE and Jiangsu Provincial Laboratory for Nanotechnology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, China

    Baoxing Wang, Chenxia Liu, Lijun Yang, Qiang Wu, Xizhang Wang & Zheng Hu

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  1. Baoxing Wang
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  2. Chenxia Liu
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  3. Lijun Yang
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  4. Qiang Wu
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Correspondence to Qiang Wu, Xizhang Wang or Zheng Hu.

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12274_2022_4079_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

Defect-induced deposition of manganese oxides on hierarchical carbon nanocages for high-performance lithium-oxygen batteries

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Wang, B., Liu, C., Yang, L. et al. Defect-induced deposition of manganese oxides on hierarchical carbon nanocages for high-performance lithium-oxygen batteries. Nano Res. 15, 4132–4136 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4079-y

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