Dou Yaying, Xie Zhaojun, Wei Yingjin, Peng Zhangquan, Zhou Zhen
Engineering Research Center of Advanced Functional Material Manufacturing of Ministry of Education, School of Chemical Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China.
Institute of New Energy Material Chemistry, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, China.
Natl Sci Rev. 2022 Mar 4;9(4):nwac040. doi: 10.1093/nsr/nwac040. eCollection 2022 Apr.
Aprotic lithium-oxygen (Li-O) batteries are receiving intense research interest by virtue of their ultra-high theoretical specific energy. However, current Li-O batteries are suffering from severe barriers, such as sluggish reaction kinetics and undesired parasitic reactions. Recently, molecular catalysts, i.e. redox mediators (RMs), have been explored to catalyse the oxygen electrochemistry in Li-O batteries and are regarded as an advanced solution. To fully unlock the capability of Li-O batteries, an in-depth understanding of the catalytic mechanisms of RMs is necessary. In this review, we summarize the working principles of RMs and their selection criteria, highlight the recent significant progress of RMs and discuss the critical scientific and technical challenges on the design of efficient RMs for next-generation Li-O batteries.
非质子锂氧（Li-O）电池因其超高的理论比能量而受到广泛的研究关注。然而，目前的Li-O电池面临着严重的障碍，如反应动力学迟缓以及不期望的寄生反应。最近，分子催化剂，即氧化还原介质（RMs），已被用于催化Li-O电池中的氧电化学，并被视为一种先进的解决方案。为了充分释放Li-O电池的性能，深入了解RMs的催化机制是必要的。在这篇综述中，我们总结了RMs的工作原理及其选择标准，突出了RMs最近取得的重大进展，并讨论了设计用于下一代Li-O电池的高效RMs所面临的关键科学和技术挑战。
