Recycling Application of Li–MnO2 Batteries as Rechargeable Lithium–Air Batteries

Abstract

AbstractThe ever‐increasing consumption of a huge quantity of lithium batteries, for example, Li–MnO2 cells, raises critical concern about their recycling. We demonstrate herein that decayed Li–MnO2 cells can be further utilized as rechargeable lithium–air cells with admitted oxygen. We further investigated the effects of lithiated manganese dioxide on the electrocatalytic properties of oxygen‐reduction and oxygen‐evolution reactions (ORR/OER). The catalytic activity was found to be correlated with the composition of LixMnO2 electrodes (0<x<1) generated in situ in aprotic Li–MnO2 cells owing to tuning of the Mn valence and electronic structure. In particular, modestly lithiated Li0.50MnO2 exhibited superior performance with enhanced round‐trip efficiency (ca. 76 %), high cycling ability (190 cycles), and high discharge capacity (10 823 mA h gcarbon−1). The results indicate that the use of depleted Li–MnO2 batteries can be prolonged by their application as rechargeable lithium–air batteries.