Maitra, Urmimala and House, Robert H and Somerville, James W. and Tapia-Ruiz, Nuria and Lozano, Juan G. and Guerrini, Niccoló and Hao, Rong and Luo, Kun and Jing, Liyue (2018) Oxygen redox chemistry without excess alkali-metal ions in Na2/3[Mg0.28Mn0.72]O2. Nature Chemistry, 10. pp. 288-295. ISSN 1755-4330
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Abstract
The search for improved energy-storage materials has revealed Li- and Na-rich intercalation compounds as promising high-capacity cathodes. They exhibit capacities in excess of what would be expected from alkali-ion removal/reinsertion and charge compensation by transition-metal (TM) ions. The additional capacity is provided through charge compensation by oxygen redox chemistry and some oxygen loss. It has been reported previously that oxygen redox occurs in O 2p orbitals that interact with alkali ions in the TM and alkali-ion layers (that is, oxygen redox occurs in compounds containing Li+–O(2p)–Li+ interactions). Na2/3[Mg0.28Mn0.72]O2 exhibits an excess capacity and here we show that this is caused by oxygen redox, even though Mg2+ resides in the TM layers rather than alkali-metal (AM) ions, which demonstrates that excess AM ions are not required to activate oxygen redox. We also show that, unlike the alkali-rich compounds, Na2/3[Mg0.28Mn0.72]O2 does not lose oxygen. The extraction of alkali ions from the alkali and TM layers in the alkali-rich compounds results in severely underbonded oxygen, which promotes oxygen loss, whereas Mg2+ remains in Na2/3[Mg0.28Mn0.72]O2, which stabilizes oxygen.