Investigation of Li–O2 Battery Performance Integrated with RuO2 Inverse Opal Cathodes in DMSO

The development of electrocatalysts has emerged as an important aspect of rechargeable lithium–oxygen (Li–O 2 ) batteries due to the fact that they facilitate the formation and decomposition of discharge products, leading to a higher capacity and cyclability. Herein, we demonstrate that ruthenium oxide (RuO 2 ) inverse opal (IO), which possesses a three-dimensionally ordered porous network, has been developed and applied to the Li–O 2 battery as a cathode. The RuO 2 IO cathode contributes to the reduction of charge overpotential by up to ∼120 mV in lithium nitrate/dimethyl sulfoxide (LiNO 3 /DMSO), which corresponds to an ∼670 mV decrease as compared with that of a carbon cathode, Ketjen black (KB). Differential electrochemical mass spectrometer (DEMS) monitoring and magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance (MAS NMR) measurement reveal the origin of the extremely low charge overpo…