Fabrication of antimony-doped tin oxide/carbon black composite with oxygen plasma treatment for lithium-air batteries

Abstract In this paper, carbon black (CB) was treated by oxygen plasma as electrode active material and antimony-doped tin oxide based catalyst was prepared in the form of nanoparticles. The initial discharge of as-prepared cathode for lithium-air battery was investigated. We found the surface of CB after oxygen plasma for 10 min at 200 W had successfully grafted functional groups, which were helpful to increase the binding sites between carbon material and tin oxide. More importantly, the results showed that functional CB exhibited excellent dispersing property. The synthesis of antimony-doped tin oxide (ATO) had a significant role in the growth of initial discharge plateaus of lithium-air battery. The discharge capacity of carbon black antimony-doped tin oxide (ATO/CB-10) was also superior to that of non-catalyst cathode.