Facile preparation of nickel phosphide/multi-walled carbon nanotube films for high-performance Li–O2 batteries

Lithium–air batteries have been attracting attention as post energy storage systems in the last 10 years due to the advantage of having 10 times higher energy density than lithium–ion batteries. Developing proper catalysts is one of the major current challenge to overcome their high overpotential and long life cycle span. Here, we demonstrated facile preparation of Ni₂P/multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) films through vacuum filration. The free-standing flims shows that Ni₂P particles well bounded within the MWCNT framework without any deformation, confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images and X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns. The Li–O₂ cell employing Nickel Phosphide/MWCNT films as a cathode material shows and initial ∼6 % increase in energy efficiency and a subsequent 10 cycle retention.