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

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.