Preparation of low-load Au-Pd alloy decorated carbon fibers binder-free cathode for Li-O2 battery.

Developing high-performance cathode is critical to facilitating the development of lithium-oxygen (Li-O2) batteries. In this work, a low-load (1.32%) Au-Pd alloy decorated carbon fibers binder-free cathode is prepared by facile magnetron sputtering (MS). It is the first use as a cathode material for Li-O2 batteries, and exhibits excellent electrochemical performance. During the second to the 30th cycle of the battery operation at a current density of 100 mA g-1 with a limited specific capacity density of 1000 mAh g-1, the charge and discharge polarization voltage is only about 0.6 V. In addition, the problem of abnormal charge polarization voltage in the first cycle is also investigated. The by-products Li2CO3 are formed during the first discharge, resulting in a significant increase in the charge polarization voltage. The facile preparation method we adopted and our findings may provide new ideas for the future development of Au-Pd alloy composites in Li-O2 or other metal-air batteries.