Aprotic Electrolytes in Li-Air Batteries

Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, 

low et al. (eds.). Electrolytes for Lithium and Lithium-Ion Batteries, Modem Aspects of Electrochemistry 58, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4939-0302-3. Springer Science-rBusiness Media New York 2014 

In this chapter we restrict our review to research that has been done on the stability of fully aprotic liquid electrolytes for Li-air batteries. The review includes both experimental and computational aspects of this work, although the emphasis is on theoretical aspects. In the second section we review the basics of Li-air batteries and the electrochonical reactions involved in their operation and how they relate to the electrolyte. In the third section we review electronic structure methods for investigations of electrolytes. In the fourth section we discuss some of the initial Li-air 

The design of a typical aprotic Li-air battery is shown in Fig. 10.1. The cell is composed of a metallic Li-anode, an electrolyte consisting of dissolved Li-salt in an aprotic solvent, and a porous 02-breathing cathode that contains carbon particles 

In the Li-air system, the metal (LF) ions in the electrolyte appear to act as Lewis acids in the reduction of O2 to 02 (superoxide), which is the initial electron 

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In contrast to the Li-ion battery, the practical considerations of aprotic electrolytes used in Li-air battery are not limited to thermal stability, ionic transport, inertness towards electrode materials, and practical electrochemical window, but also include the reversibility issue of the formation of active materials that involves the subtle electrochemical reactions between the aprotic electrolytes and the reduced O2... 

V. S. Bryantsev, V. Giordani, W. Walker, M. Blanco, S. Zecevic, Predicting solvent stability in aprotic electrolyte Li-air batteries nucleophilic substitution by the superoxide anion radical (02( -)) , The Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 115, 2399-12409, 2011. 

Finally, fundamental understanding of the trends for the oxygen reduction reaction in aprotic solvents [174] is very important for the development of advanced catalysts for non-aqueous electrolyte Li/air batteries. 

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