Designing a hydrophobic PtCo/N-doped porous carbon catalyst for the long-term operation of Li–Air batteries in humid atmosphere

Abstract

Li–air batteries with ultrahigh energy density are attracting attention, but at present, their practical applications are severely limited by water intrusion in the air. Herein, we loaded PtCo alloy nanoparticles on a N-doped porous carbon surface to create a novel hydrophobic functional catalyst. This catalyst effectively inhibited water contamination and suppressed the occurrence of side reactions. Li–air batteries with hydrophobic functional catalysts exhibited over double the cycle performance in both humid oxygen (∼50% relative humidity, over 255 h) and ambient air (CO2: 700 ppm, ∼55% relative humidity, over 135 h) at a current density of 500 mA g -1. In addition, the discharge specific capacities of humid oxygen and ambient air were increased to 18719.3 mAh g -1 and 11,385 mAh g -1.