Jul 09, 2016 11:05 AM EDT By Sarene Mae Butao, UniversityHerald Reporter

A group of researchers at Yale University developed an improvement in the lithium-oxygen technology that could make it available for commercial use.

The lithium-oxygen battery breakthrough shook the science and research world with its potential. The lithium-oxygen battery is reported to be able to store two to three times power as compared to the regular lithium-ion battery used in today's laptops and cellphones. This means that the lithium-oxygen battery would enable electric cars and mobile devices run longer on a single charge.

However, these batteries have short lives and operates slowly of this battery makes it impossible for the market. And fixing this problem was very tricky.

The laboratory researchers in Professor André D. Taylor's lab have developed a method that brings the lithium-oxygen battery closer to the market. The researchers at Yale's chemical and Environmental Engineering improved the batteries' performance. They have also improved their ability to be studied further, Yale School of Engineering and Applied Science reported.

The team led by won-Hee Ryu, a former Taylor lab post-doc, is currently working as an assistant professor at Sookmyung Women's University in the Department of chemical and Biological Engineering. Won-Hee Ryu was the lead author of the research.

The research focused on investigating a mechanism that would alleviate catalyst deactivation by dispersing catalytic sites away from the oxygen electrode. The catalytic site, though effective in lowering the reaction barriers, often become non- effective due because it becomes buried in solid oxide products. These solid buildup leads to early death of the lithium-oxygen battery. In the research, the team replaced the polyacrylonitrile (PAN), a membrane material, with anodic aluminum oxide (AAO). This allows the battery to be cross-sectioned without destroying the pores structure, according to the report published in ACS Nano Letters.

Taylor said that they will try other catalysts using the AAO membrane in order to explore new architectures for the lithium-oxygen battery.

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