RuO2 active particles supported on Ni12P5 as excellent electrocatalysts for LiO2 batteries

Ni12P5 has excellent electrochemical properties due to the existence of a large number of NiP bonds with abundant phosphorus vacancies. RuO2 has good electrical conductivity and catalytic activity, and its OER activity is very significant. In this paper, RuO2 nanoparticles were loaded onto the surfaces of Ni12P5 particles, forming RuO2/Ni12P5/C composite electrode catalytic materials which were prepared and applied to LiO2 cells. The electrochemical tests reveal that the specific capacity of the LiO2 battery with a RuO2/Ni12P5/C electrode reaches 4296 mAh g−1, the cycle life reaches 56 cycles, and the over-potential is effectively controlled at the current density of 200 mA g−1. This improvement is attributable to the effective adsorption of phosphorus vacancies in Ni12P5 and the excellent OER catalytic activity of RuO2. Therefore, this work significantly enhanced the electrochemical performance of the cell, thus laying the foundation for the development of LiO2 batteries.