Novel concept of pseudocapacitor using stabilized lithium metal powder and non-lithiated metal oxide electrodes in organic electrolyte

A concept of using two non-prelithiated metal oxides (e.g., MnO2, V2O5, and FeOx) in both positive and negative electrodes in organic Li-ion electrolytes has been proposed and tested to improve the energy density of pseudocapacitors. To take the advantages of this concept, additional lithium source is essential to provide lithium ions during the charge–discharge cycles. The stabilized lithium metal powder (SLMP™) developed by FMC Corp., provides such an essential Li+ source. Here we report the first result of the symmetric pseudocapacitor using two non-prelithiated metal oxide (i.e., manganese oxide/carbon nanotube (MnO2/CNT)) electrodes, with added SLMP in one of them. The capacitor using the SLMP added MnO2/CNT (positive) and pure MnO2/CNT (negative) electrode in 1.2 M LiPF6-EC:EMC electrolyte shows supercapacitive behaviors in 3.0 V voltage range. The addition of SLMP opens new opportunities of using the non-lithiated metal oxide electrodes in pseudocapacitors and hybrid electrochemical capacitors (ECs), which has not been possible before.