Light-assisted delithiation of lithium iron phosphate nanocrystals towards photo-rechargeable lithium ion batteries

Andrea Paolella, Cyril Faure, Giovanni Bertoni, Sergio Marras, Abdelbast Guerfi, Ali Darwiche, Pierre Hovington, Basile Commarieu, Zhuoran Wang, Mirko Prato, Massimo Colombo, Simone Monaco, Wen Zhu, Zimin Feng, Ashok Vijh, Chandramohan George, George P. Demopoulos*, Michel Armand, Karim Zaghib

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

198 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Recently, intensive efforts are dedicated to convert and store the solar energy in a single device. Herein, dye-synthesized solar cell technology is combined with lithium-ion materials to investigate light-assisted battery charging. In particular we report the direct photo-oxidation of lithium iron phosphate nanocrystals in the presence of a dye as a hybrid photo-cathode in a two-electrode system, with lithium metal as anode and lithium hexafluorophosphate in carbonate-based electrolyte; a configuration corresponding to lithium ion battery charging. Dye-sensitization generates electron-hole pairs with the holes aiding the delithiation of lithium iron phosphate at the cathode and electrons utilized in the formation of a solid electrolyte interface at the anode via oxygen reduction. Lithium iron phosphate acts effectively as a reversible redox agent for the regeneration of the dye. Our findings provide possibilities in advancing the design principles for photo-rechargeable lithium ion batteries.

Original languageEnglish
Article number14643
JournalNature Communications
Volume8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 10 Apr 2017
Externally publishedYes

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