Performance and Sustainability Tradeoffs of Oxidized Carbon Nanotubes as a Cathodic Material in Lithium‐Oxygen Batteries

Abstract

Climate change mitigation efforts will require a portfolio of solutions, including improvements to energy storage technologies in electric vehicles and renewable energy sources, such as the high‐energy‐density lithium‐oxygen battery (LOB). However, if LOB technology will contribute to addressing climate change, improvements to LOB performance must not come at the cost of disproportionate increases in global warming potential (GWP) or cumulative energy demand (CED) over their lifecycle. Here, oxygen‐functionalized multi‐walled carbon nanotube (O‐MWCNT) cathodes were produced and assessed for their initial discharge capacities and cyclability. Contrary to previous findings, the discharge capacity of O‐MWCNT cathodes increased with the ratio of carbonyl/carboxyl moieties, outperforming pristine MWCNTs. However, increased oxygen concentrations decreased LOB cyclability, while high‐temperature annealing increased both discharge capacity and cyclability. Improved performance resulting from MWCNT post‐processing came at the cost of increased GWP and CED, which in some cases was disproportionately higher than the level of improved performance. Based on the findings presented here, there is a need to simultaneously advance research in improving LOB performance while minimizing or mitigating the environmental impacts of LOB production.

The Interplay between Corporate Social Responsibility at Employee Level, Ethical Leadership, Quality of Work Life and Employee Pro-Environmental Behavior: The Case of Healthcare Organizations

“…The first theoretical implication of the current study is that it contributes to existing CSR literature from the employee perspectives. Previous studies, however, explored CSR in different contexts [ 4 , 7 , 8 ] rather than focusing on employees. Further, most of the prior studies on the current topics were conducted in developed economies [ 78 , 94 ].…”

“…Over the years, the phenomenon of CSR has received considerable attention from scholars and practitioners as CSR practices have affected almost every organization in different industries [ 1 ]. Until the last decades, the topic of CSR received less attention, but different environment-related issues like climate change [ 2 , 3 ] and global warming [ 4 ] forced businesses to adopt sustainability practices to reduce their environmental footprint. Further, “the Paris agreement on climate change” is regarded as a stepping stone toward adapting sustainability practices by global economics [ 5 ].…”

“…There is a growing stream of researchers establishing that employees are enactors for an organization to achieve CSR-related outcomes [ 19 , 20 , 21 ]. However, prior CSR literature in the domain of employees is still limited because most of the previous researchers have explored CSR to achieve other outcomes rather than focusing on employees [ 4 , 7 , 8 ].…”

Ultraviolet Light-Assisted Ag@La0.6Sr0.4Fe0.9Mn0.1O3 Nanohybrids: A Facile and Versatile Method for Preparation of Highly Stable Catalysts in Li-O2 Batteries

“…Thus, the LaFeO 3 -based perovskite shows high catalytic performance as a cathode for LOBs. However, LOBs with the LaFeO 3 -based perovskite as a cathode catalyst still show relatively high discharge and charge overpotentials, which may cause the decomposition of electrolytes , and the oxidation of the carbon material. , These irreversible side reactions would cause the rapid decay of LOBs.…”

A Novel Cr2O3/MnO2-x Electrode for Lithium-Oxygen Batteries with Low Charge Voltage and High Energy Efficiency

“…Therefore, the ORR/OER reaction resistance dominates the total resistance. Many catalytic materials have been prepared to promote the electrochemical reaction and improve battery performance, such as carbon-based materials ( Wu et al, 2020b ; Li et al, 2020c ; Falinski et al, 2020 ; Ren et al, 2020 ), noble metal/metal oxides ( Li et al, 2020a ; Nam et al, 2020 ; Zhu et al, 2020 ), and transition metal oxides ( Wu et al, 2020a ; Cai et al, 2020 ; Song et al, 2020 ).…”