Influence of cathode catalyst composition on the life-cycle environmental impacts of lithium - oxygen batteries

This study evaluates how cathode catalyst selection influences the environmental performance of Li-O 2 battery systems for electric vehicle applications under consistent system-level modeling conditions. The cradle-to-grave environmental impacts of 63.5 kWh Li-O 2 battery systems, modeled with five different cathode catalysts (α-MnO 2 , Ru-doped α-MnO 2 , Ag-doped α-MnO 2 , NiO, and NiCo 2 O 4 ), were examined using life cycle assessment (LCA). Laboratory-scale synthesis processes were scaled up for large-scale production using empirical formulas. The battery pack-level assessment was performed using the BatPaC model. The results show that catalyst composition plays a critical role in determining environmental performance, particularly through its influence on production energy demand and electrochemical characteristics. Among the configurations, the Ru-based battery had the highest impact with a Global Warming Potential (GWP) result of 130.22 g CO 2 -eq/km. The lowest GWP results were obtained for α-MnO 2 (94.76 g CO 2 -eq/km) and Ag-doped (94.65 g CO 2 -eq/km) batteries. Nickel-based catalysts show comparatively higher impacts due to increased production energy requirements and lower electrochemical performance. The results indicate that the use phase is the dominant life cycle stage for all configurations, whereas the metal content of cathode catalysts and associated energy inputs significantly influence production-phase impacts. The use-phase GWP of the Ag-doped configuration was approximately 65% lower than the selected diesel vehicle use-phase benchmark. Compared to NMC and Li–S systems, the Ag-doped configuration reduces the GWP by 34% and 40%, respectively. Sensitivity analysis shows that low-carbon electricity grids can reduce GWP by up to 82%. Overall, the results provide a system-level, decision-oriented assessment of cathode catalyst selection, demonstrating that both material design and operational conditions must be jointly considered to achieve meaningful environmental improvements in Li-O 2 battery systems.