Lithium-Air Cathode Pore Clogging

Inside a discharging lithium-air (Li-O₂) battery, oxygen diffuses from the gas side into a porous carbon cathode and is reduced at the carbon surface to form solid Li2O2, which precipitates as distinctive toroidal particles. This simulator models the coupled diffusion-reaction process depth-layer by depth-layer: O₂ concentration obeys Fick's law with a Bruggeman-type effective diffusivity that falls as pores fill, while the reaction is apportioned to whichever layers still have both oxygen and open sites. Because the pore mouths nearest the O₂ source see the highest concentration, they clog first, throttling transport into the still-unreacted interior — the cell's voltage collapses in a "sudden death" long before the cathode is saturated. Adjust the discharge current, O₂ partial pressure and pore architecture to see how each shifts the point of sudden death.