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Charge-compensation in 3d-transition-metal-oxide intercalation cathodes through the generation of localized electron holes on oxygen

Nature Chemistry volume 8, pages 684–691 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

During the charging and discharging of lithium-ion-battery cathodes through the de- and reintercalation of lithium ions, electroneutrality is maintained by transition-metal redox chemistry, which limits the charge that can be stored. However, for some transition-metal oxides this limit can be broken and oxygen loss and/or oxygen redox reactions have been proposed to explain the phenomenon. We present operando mass spectrometry of 18O-labelled Li1.2[Ni0.132+Co0.133+Mn0.544+]O2, which demonstrates that oxygen is extracted from the lattice on charging a Li1.2[Ni0.132+Co0.133+Mn0.544+]O2 cathode, although we detected no O2 evolution. Combined soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy, resonant inelastic X-ray scattering spectroscopy, X-ray absorption near edge structure spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy demonstrates that, in addition to oxygen loss, Li+ removal is charge compensated by the formation of localized electron holes on O atoms coordinated by Mn4+ and Li+ ions, which serve to promote the localization, and not the formation, of true O22− (peroxide, O–O ~1.45 Å) species. The quantity of charge compensated by oxygen removal and by the formation of electron holes on the O atoms is estimated, and for the case described here the latter dominates.

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Figure 1: Charge–discharge curves for Li1.2Ni0.13Co0.13Mn0.54O2.
Figure 2: Operando mass spectrometry of the 18O-labelled Li1.2Ni0.13Co0.13Mn0.54O2 cathode during the first cycle.
Figure 3: O K-edge SXAS of Li1.2Ni0.13Co0.13Mn0.54O2.
Figure 4: The nature of holes on oxygen.
Figure 5: Evolution of the transition metal K-edge positions.
Figure 6: The location of oxygen anions in Li1.2Ni0.13Co0.13Mn0.54O2 at which localized electron-hole states occur.

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Acknowledgements

P.G.B. is indebted to the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, including the SUPERGEN program, for financial support. The Advanced Light Source is supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, US Department of Energy, under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. The authors are also grateful to A. Dent and G. Cibin for contributing to the collection of hard XAS data and R. Smith for the collection of neutron diffraction data.

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  1. Kun Luo and Matthew R. Roberts: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Materials and Chemistry, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PH, UK

    Kun Luo, Matthew R. Roberts, Rong Hao, Niccoló Guerrini & Peter G. Bruce

  2. School of Physical Sciences, University of Kent, Canterbury, CT2 7NH, Kent, UK

    David M. Pickup & Alan V. Chadwick

  3. Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, 94720, California, USA

    Yi-Sheng Liu & Jinghua Guo

  4. Department of Chemistry—Ångström Laboratory, Uppsala University, Box 538, Uppsala, SE-75121, Sweden

    Kristina Edström

  5. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Division of Molecular and Condensed Matter Physics, Uppsala University, Box 516, Uppsala, S-751 20, Sweden

    Laurent C. Duda

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Contributions

K.L. and M.R.R. contributed to all aspects of the research. R.H. contributed to the synthesis and Raman spectroscopy. L.C.D., N.G., Y.-S.L., K.E. and J.G. contributed to the measurement and analysis of SXAS and RIXS spectroscopy. D.M.P. and A.V.C. contributed to analysis of hard XAS measurements. P.G.B., K.L., M.R.R. and L.C.D. interpreted the data. P.G.B. wrote the paper with contributions from K.L. and M.R.R. The project was supervised by P.G.B.

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Correspondence to Peter G. Bruce.

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Luo, K., Roberts, M., Hao, R. et al. Charge-compensation in 3d-transition-metal-oxide intercalation cathodes through the generation of localized electron holes on oxygen. Nature Chem 8, 684–691 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.2471

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