A highly efficient electrocatalyst of perovskite LaNiO3 for nonaqueous Li–O2 batteries with superior cycle stability

Abstract

A highly efficient catalyst of perovskite LaNiO3 was synthesized by a simple reverse homogenous precipitation method and adopted as the electrocatalyst in nonaqueous Li–O2 batteries. The phase structure and morphologies of the as-synthesized LaNiO3 nanoparticles (NPs) are characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The electrocatalytic activity of porous LaNiO3 catalysts was investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and charge–discharge measurements using Li–O2 batteries in aprotic electrolyte. The electrochemical results show that the LaNiO3-based electrode exhibits much enhanced cycling ability (>155 cycles) as well as stable discharging plateau (limit > 2.51 V) with a 706 mV smaller charge–discharge voltage gap than that of the pure carbon cathode at a current density of 50 mA g−1. The superior performance contributes to the high intrinsic electrocatalytic activity of LaNiO3 with the porous nanostructure.