Synthesis of Nanocomposite Photo-Catalysts for Photo-Assisted Charging of Li-Ion Oxygen Batteries

Abstract

In this work, g-C3N4 / 3 % rGO nanocomposite was synthesized as a photo-catalyst in order to use in the Li-ion oxygen battery. The aim was to reduce the high charging potential of the battery by the photoassistance. The synthesis of nanocomposite was carried out by thermal decomposition of melamine which was initially mixed with the required amount reduced graphene oxide (rGO). The rGO had dual competing actions in the nanocomposite. The first action was to reduce the optical band gap of the semiconductor nanocomposite that the photo-catalyst properties of the nanocomposite were improved. Secondly, rGO degradated the visible light utilization of the nanocomposite since it favorably absorbed incident light instead of g-C3N4. The photo-assisted charging tests indicated that the synthesized nanocomposite reduced the charging potential and improved the cyclic discharge-charge performance of the Li-ion oxygen battery.

Keywords

• Nanocomposites
• Photo-charging
• Li-Ion oxygen batteries