Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mphil-in-micro-and-nanotechnology-enterprise-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2022/paper-1/section-b/11/iii/solution

A lithium–oxygen system can have much greater theoretical active-material specific energy because it avoids the heavy transition-metal host and carbon host of the preceding insertion cell. Oxygen can be taken from the surroundings, but a mass comparison must say whether that oxygen is counted.
The peroxide reaction transfers two electrons per unit. If oxygen is counted, the reactant mass per two electrons is
compared with for two electrons in the idealized lithium-ion reaction. At the same average voltage, the active-material specific energy would therefore be larger by . If only stored lithium is counted, the ideal mass advantage is larger still, but this excludes the oxygen and is not a like-for-like closed-cell mass basis.
The source supplies no lithium-peroxide formation free energy or oxygen-electrode potential, so it does not determine an absolute lithium–oxygen voltage or specific energy. Real devices require an oxygen electrode, gas-management and electrolyte; insulating discharge products, parasitic reactions, charging overpotential and mass transport reduce the practical advantage. The question's reaction is chemical oxygen reduction, not a biological energy pathway.

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