Two-dimensional materials may catalyse performance of promising lithium-air batteries

Lithium-air batteries are seen as one of the most promising technologies for future energy storage applications. Capable in the theory of storing 10 times more energy than lithium ion batteries and much lower in weight, they are still in development, with their stability and efficiency still not matching expectations. Battery researchers are trying to find catalysts that can increase the rate of the chemical reactions inside the battery, which increases their ability to hold and discharge energy.

Engineers at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) are working on two-dimensional compounds of transition metals – the elements that occupy the central block of the periodic table, which tend to have a large number of electrons per atom that are capable of becoming involved with bonding and electrical activity – with non-metals.

In the journal Advanced Materials, Amin Salehi-Khojin and colleagues from UIC’s College of Engineering describe how a type of compound called transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) enabled lithium-air batteries to hold 10 times more energy than batteries using traditional catalysts. Chalcogenides are compounds incorporating elements of group 16 in the periodic table, including oxygen, sulphur, selenium and tellurium.