Effects of Central Metal Ion on Binuclear Metal Phthalocyanine-Based Redox Mediator for Lithium Carbonate Decomposition

Li2CO3is the most tenacious parasitic solid-state product in lithium–air batteries (LABs). Developing suitable redox mediators (RMs) is an efficient way to address the Li2CO3issue, but only a few RMs have been investigated to date, and their mechanism of action also remains elusive. Herein, we investigate the effects of the central metal ion in binuclear metal phthalocyanines on the catalysis of Li2CO3decomposition, namely binuclear cobalt phthalocyanine (bi-CoPc) and binuclear cobalt manganese phthalocyanine (bi-CoMnPc). Density functional theory (DFT) calculations indicate that the key intermediate peroxydicarbonate (*C2O62−) is stabilized by bi-CoPc2+and bi-CoMnPc3+, which is accountable for their excellent catalytic effects. With one central metal ion substituted by manganese for cobalt, the bi-CoMnPc’s second active redox couple shifts from the second Co(II)/Co(III) couple in the central metal ion to the Pc(-2)/Pc(-1) couple in the phthalocyanine ring. In artificial dry air (N2-O2, 78:22,v/v), the LAB cell with bi-CoMnPc in electrolyte exhibited 261 cycles under a fixed capacity of 500 mAh g−1carbonand current density of 100 mA g−1carbon, significantly better than the RM-free cell (62 cycles) and the cell with bi-CoPc (193 cycles).