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A primary Li-air battery has been developed with a flowing Li-ion free ionic liquid as the recyclable electrolyte, boosting power capability by promoting superoxide diffusion and enhancing discharge capacity through separately stored discharge products. Experimental and computational tools are used to analyze the cathode properties, leading to a set of parameters that improve the discharge current density of the non-aqueous Li-air flow battery. The structure and configuration of the cathode gas diffusion layers (GDLs) are systematically modified by using different levels of hot pressing and the presence or absence of a microporous layer (MPL). These experiments reveal that the use of thinner but denser MPLs is key for performance optimization; indeed, this leads to an improvement in discharge current density. Also, computational results indicate that the extent of electrolyte immersion and porosity of the cathode can be optimized to achieve higher current density. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have fabricated and compared photocurrent generation properties of electropolymerized films consisting of 2,2'-bithiophene and a porphyrin derivative, 5,10,15,20-tetra(3-thienyl)-21H,23H-porphyrin or 5,10,15,20-tetra(2-thienyl)-21H,23H-porphyrin. It was found that the location and the concentration of porphyrin moieties in the films were different between the two porphyrin monomers, and the polymer film with the former porphyrin gave larger photocurrent than the latter. The result indicates that the molecular design of the polymer electrode is very important for effective photocurrent generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Z-scheme type photoelectrochemical cell consisting of an electrochemically polymerized photoactive electrode and a dye-sensitized TiO2electrode is demonstrated. Nearly 1 V of open circuit voltage (VOC) was achieved by the cooperation of a couple of photoactive electrodes toward uphill electron pumping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]