Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Batteries: Charging ahead rationally

Nature Energy volume 1, Article number: 16074 (2016) Cite this article

Subjects

Redox mediators facilitate the oxidation of the highly insulating discharge product in metal–oxygen batteries during recharge and offer opportunities to achieve high reversible capacities. Now a design principle for selecting redox mediators that can recharge the batteries more efficiently is suggested.

Energy storage systems such as lithium-ion batteries are key enablers for overcoming societal energy challenges but still require major breakthroughs to make more widespread impact in electrified transportation, grid-scale storage and other fields. New technologies are being sought that far exceed the potentials of lithium-ion batteries in terms of the energy stored, eco-friendliness and cost1. This is why metal–air batteries such as the lithium–oxygen battery have spurred tremendous research in the past decade. They theoretically hold the highest energy per unit mass while using oxygen — drawn from the air — as the active cathode material instead of the widely used, toxic and expensive cobalt in current commercial lithium-ion batteries.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Figure 1: Working principle of a redox mediator in the lithium–oxygen battery.

References

  1. Larcher, D. & Tarascon, J. M. Nature Chem. 7, 19–29 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Chen, Y., Freunberger, S. A., Peng, Z., Fontaine, O. & Bruce, P. G. Nature Chem. 5, 489–494 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Lim, H.-D. et al. Nature Energy 1, 16066 (2016).

  4. Johnson, L. et al. Nature Chem. 6, 1091–1099 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Aetukuri, N. B. et al. Nature Chem. 7, 50–56 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Ottakam Thotiyl, M. M., Freunberger, S. A., Peng, Z. & Bruce, P. G. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 135, 494–500, (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Lacey, M. J., Frith, J. T. & Owen, J. R. Electrochem. Commun. 26, 74–76 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Sun, D. et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 136, 8941–8946 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Mourad, E. et al. Electrochim. Actahttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.electacta.2016.02.211 (2016).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stefan A. Freunberger is at Graz University of Technology, Stremayrgasse 9, 8010 Graz, Austria.,

    Stefan A. Freunberger

Authors
  1. Stefan A. Freunberger
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stefan A. Freunberger.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Freunberger, S. Batteries: Charging ahead rationally. Nat Energy 1, 16074 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nenergy.2016.74

Download citation

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nenergy.2016.74

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing