The
performance of Li–O2 batteries (LOBs), such
as capacity and overpotential, is closely related to the morphology
of the discharge product. Here, the relationship between the growth
behavior of Li2O2 on the surface of the carbon
nanotube (CNT) cathodes and the cycle performance of LOBs was innovatively
revealed based on molecular dynamics (MD) and density functional theory
(DFT). Our results demonstrated that the growth of (Li2O2)
n
on the CNT surface mainly
undergoes three stages: adhesion, branching, and connection. The stable
gap between (Li2O2)
n
and the CNT surface was determined to be approximately 2.47 Å.
Interestingly, the dense deposition thickness is positively correlated
with the number of Li2O2 monomers. In addition,
the formation of free Li2O2 directly induces
the instability of (Li2O2)
n
and capacity loss. Moreover, armchair-type CNTs with larger
diameters, especially single-walled CNTs and multi-walled CNTs with
an odd number of tube walls were found to be more conducive to the
stable growth of discharge products. Notably, (Li2O2)
n
is mainly composed of internal
stable parts with low conductivity and amorphous components distributed
on the surface with p-type semiconductor characteristics. Therefore,
the regulation of the CNT structure and the preparation of catalysts
to promote the conversion of Li2O2 from an ordered
state to an amorphous structure play a vital role in breaking the
technical bottleneck of LOBs. Our results identify the long-term controversial
evolution mechanism of the product morphology, and the unique calculation
ideas are also applicable to the intuitive exploration of the microscopic
growth behavior of discharge products in other metal–air batteries.