Abstract
The lack of fundamental understanding of the oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution in nonaqueous electrolytes significantly hinders the development of rechargeable lithium-air batteries. Here we employ a solid-state Li4+xTi5O12/LiPON/LixV2O5 cell and examine in situ the chemistry of Li-O2 reaction products on LixV2O5 as a function of applied voltage under ultra high vacuum (UHV) and near ambient-pressure of oxygen using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (APXPS). Oxygen reduction and evolution reactions take place on the surface of the mixed electronic and Li+ ionic conductor, LixV2O5, which eliminate parasitic reactions between oxygen reduction/evolution reaction intermediates and aprotic electrolytes used in Li-O2 batteries reported to date. Under UHV, reversible lithium intercalation and de-intercalation from LixV2O5 was noted, where the changes in the vanadium valence state revealed from XPS in this study were comparable to that reported previously from Li/LixV2O5 thin film batteries. In presence of oxygen near ambient pressure, the LixV2O5 surface was covered gradually by the reaction product of oxygen reduction, namely lithium peroxide (Li2O2) (approximately 1-2 unit cells) upon discharge. Interestingly, the LixV2O5 surface became re-exposed upon charging, and the oxidation of Li2O2 began at much lower overpotentials (~240 mV) than the charge overpotentials of Li-O2 cells (~1000 mV) with aprotic electrolytes, which can be attributed to subnanometer-thick Li2O2 with surfaces free of contaminants such as carbonate species. Our study provides first evidence of reversible lithium peroxide formation and decomposition in situ on an oxide surface using a solid-state cell, and new insights into the reaction mechanism of Li-O2 chemistry.
