A Guideline for Tailoring Lattice Oxygen Activity in Lithium-Rich Layered Cathodes by Strain

Lattice oxygen activity plays a dominant role in balancing discharge capacity and performance decay of lithium-rich layered oxide cathodes (LLOs). On the basis of density functional theory (DFT) and tight-binding theory, the activity of lattice oxygen can be improved by tensile strain and suppressed by compressive strain. To verify this conclusion, LLOs with large lattice parameters (L-LLOs) were synthesized taking advantage of the lattice expansion effect in nanomaterials. Compared with conventional LLOs with small lattice parameters (S-LLOs), particles in L-LLOs are imposed by tensile strain. L-LLOs show a larger initial discharge capacity and decay faster in the prolonged cycles than S-LLOs. Actually, most of the modified methods in LLOs can come down to strain-induced changes in lattice parameters. We believe this conclusion is a useful guideline to understand and tailor the lattice oxygen activity and may be generalized to other layered oxide cathodes involving anionic redox.