Construct heterostructures of MoO3 nanorods modified with Fe2O3 rice grains to improve the performance of light-involved Li-O2 battery

Light-involved Li-O2 batteries have received widespread attention in recent years. However, slow reaction kinetics and high charge/discharge overpotentials at high current densities, as well as rapid recombination of photogenerated holes and electrons have hindered their further development. In this study, we propose a design strategy to grow Fe2O3 rice grains in situ on α-MoO3 nanorods to fabricate heterostructures for Li-O2 batteries at high current densities. The heterostructure α-MoO3@Fe2O3 serves as dual-function cathode catalysts for light-involved Li-O2 batteries by facilitating oxygen reduction/oxidation reactions and enhancing the separation of photogenerated charges, thereby effectively improving photoelectrocatalytic performance. Under light irradiation conditions, the heterostructure α-MoO3@Fe2O3 exhibits low charge/discharge overpotential (0.99 V) while demonstrating good cycling stability (stable cycling for 120 cycles at a high current density of 0.5 mA cm−2 with a fixed capacity of 0.5 mAh cm−2) and good rate performance, which significantly better than that was reported the currently popular light-involved Li-O2 batteries under a high current density