Holistic view on chemical processes in Li-O₂ battery from operando spatiotemporal study

Li-O₂ battery has drawn an increasing interests due to its potential for the future energy storage in transportation application. At present, the understanding on the electrochemical processes at individual region (anode, cathode and separator) and their interdependence are still limited due to convoluted reactions. In this report, we will discuss our recent spatiotemporal investigation on the operating Li-O₂ batteries under the cycling condition using the most representative design and materials in the field. We were able not only to reveal individually the changes at anode, cathode and separator, but also to assemble these data under the same discharge-charge time domain. Such information provides a holistic view of the chemical processes at different regions and their interdependence inside of a working battery.