Nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes show high activity as cathode for lithium-air batteries
25 April 2011
Nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes (N-CNTs) uses as cathode materials for lithium-air batteries show a specific discharge capacity of 66 mAh g-1, which is about 1.5 times as that of CNTs, according to a new study by a team from the University of Western Ontario (Canada).
Their paper appears in the journal Electrochemistry Communications.
Li et al. synthesized the N-CNTs—which testing confirmed to incorporate 10.2 at.% nitrogen—by a floating catalyst chemical vapor deposition (FCCVD) method.
The team concluded that their results indicated that the N-CNTs electrode shows high electrocatalytic activities for the cathode reaction, thus improving lithium-air battery performance. The performance improvement of N-CNTs, they suggested, results from heteroatom nitrogen doping.
Resources
Yongliang Li, Jiajun Wang, Xifei Li, Jian Liu, Dongsheng Geng, Jinli Yang, Ruying Li and Xueliang Sun (2011) Nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes as novel cathode for lithium-air batteries. Electrochemistry Communications doi: 10.1016/j.elecom.2011.04.004
what happens when we start to run out of nitrogen?.. how are we going to fertilize the plants??.. no food for batteries!
Posted by: Herm | 25 April 2011 at 10:08 AM
high electrocatalytic activities for the cathode reaction
This is what you want in an air battery. We can expect developments and announcements in this area time after time. Science is starting to do work in this area and once they do progress is made...most excellent.
Posted by: SJC | 25 April 2011 at 10:38 AM
I'm doing something wrong in my calculations because I'm coming up with some kind of super wild numbers for the energy density of the proposed anode. If a lithium air battery operates somewhere in the neighborhood of 2.9V then this would yield something like 191kWh/kg???
What the hell am I doing wrong here? ...or do I need to check my meds?
Herm, they are talking about some trace doping of the CNTs. I bet you could get enough nitrogen out of a cubic meter of atmosphere to build a million cells :-)
Posted by: DaveD | 25 April 2011 at 10:53 AM
Fertilizers (often over used) have a very high percentage of nitrogen.
Lithium-air batteries may have a lot to offer when we have learned how to build them.
Posted by: HarveyD | 25 April 2011 at 01:42 PM
DaveD,
It is 66 mAh g-1, that is 66 milliamp hours per gram. One kilogram would be 66 Ah times 2.9 volts for 191.4 Wh per kilogram. These are not high power density batteries but they could become very energy dense, this is just the opening round of improvements.
Posted by: SJC | 25 April 2011 at 01:48 PM
Ok, that is what threw me off...that is way too LOW for a lithium air battery. Did they miss a zero?
Look at the article on the lithim ion battery that GCC posted just a couple of hours later at 662mAh/g:
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2011/04/snc-20110425.html#tp
Posted by: DaveD | 26 April 2011 at 05:49 AM