Aprotic Li–O2 battery: Influence of complexing agents on oxygen reduction in an aprotic solvent Li, Chunmei Fontaine, Olivier Freunberger, Stefan Alexander ; https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2902-5319 Johnson, Lee Grugeon, Sylvie Laruelle, Stéphane Bruce, Peter G. Armand, Michel Several problems arise at the O2 (positive) electrode in the Li-air battery, including solvent/electrode decomposition and electrode passivation by insulating Li2O2. Progress partially depends on exploring the basic electrochemistry of O2 reduction. Here we describe the effect of complexing-cations on the electrochemical reduction of O2 in DMSO in the presence and absence of a Li salt. The solubility of alkaline peroxides in DMSO is enhanced by the complexing-cations, consistent with their strong interaction with reduced O2. The complexing-cations also increase the rate of the 1-electron O2 reduction to O2•– by up to six-fold (k° = 2.4 ×10–3 to 1.5 × 10–2 cm s–1) whether or not Li+ ions are present. In the absence of Li+, the complexing-cations also promote the reduction of O2•– to O22–. In the presence of Li+ and complexing-cations, and despite the interaction of the reduced O2 with the latter, SERS confirms that the product is still Li2O2. ACS 2014 info:eu-repo/semantics/article doc-type:article text http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_2df8fbb1 https://research-explorer.ista.ac.at/record/7301 Li C, Fontaine O, Freunberger SA, et al. Aprotic Li–O2 battery: Influence of complexing agents on oxygen reduction in an aprotic solvent. <i>The Journal of Physical Chemistry C</i>. 2014;118(7):3393-3401. doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/jp4093805">10.1021/jp4093805</a> eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1021/jp4093805 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/1932-7447 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/1932-7455 info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess