Maximum theoretical power density of lithium–air batteries with mixed electrolyte

Abstract

An analytical model is developed for the discharge voltage of Li–air batteries with mixed organic/aqueous electrolyte and used to analyze the effects of the oxygen dissolution, solubility, pressure, and diffusivity, reaction rates, and internal resistance on the power density of Li–air batteries. By carefully identifying the model parameters using experimental data it is shown that, for discharge currents above 25 mA cm−2 the power of these batteries is mainly limited by the large internal resistance of the membrane and membrane/electrolyte interfaces (which is currently larger than 100 Ω cm2), while for smaller discharge currents the power is limited by the low oxygen concentration at the reaction sites. The maximum power density can be increased by approximately 1.5 times if the internal resistance is decreased from 100 Ω cm2 to 25 Ω cm2. This relatively small increase in the power density is due to the low dissolution rate and solubility of the oxygen in the liquid electrolyte. Finally, when the battery is operated at maximum discharge power, the oxygen diffusion length in the aqueous electrolyte is under 1 μm, which shows that one needs to use partly wet cathodes in order to achieve high power densities in these batteries.