The electrochemical performance of phenol-formaldehyde based activated carbon electrodes for lithium/oxygen batteries

Here we demonstrate the use of polymer derived activated carbons as the potential electrode material for Li/O2 batteries. The activated carbons were synthesized by sol-gel polycondensation of low cost phenol and formaldehyde followed by carbonization at 1050°C in an inert atmosphere and activation under CO2 to different degrees of burn off. Galvanostatic charge/discharge measurements performed on the activated carbon based electrodes show that discharge capacity increases with mesopore volume, with the highest discharge capacity of 1852 mAh/g obtained for the carbon having the highest mesopore volume of 1.8717 cm3/g. Galvanostatic rate capability tests show that discharge capacity of the cell decreases with increasing discharge rates significantly.