Tuning Oxygen Redox Reaction through the Inductive Effect with Proton Insertion in Li-Rich Oxides

As a parent compound of Li-rich electrodes, Li₂MnO₃ exhibits high capacity during the initial charge; however, it suffers notoriously low Coulombic efficiency due to oxygen and surface activities. Here, we successfully optimize the oxygen activities toward reversible oxygen redox reactions by intentionally introducing protons into lithium octahedral vacancies in the Li₂MnO₃ system with its original structural integrity maintained. Combining structural probes, theoretical calculations, and resonant inelastic X-ray scattering results, a moderate coupling between the introduced protons and lattice oxygen at the oxidized state is revealed, which stabilizes the oxygen activities during charging. Such a coupling leads to an unprecedented initial Coulombic efficiency (99.2%) with a greatly improved discharge capacity of 302 mAh g^-1 in the protonated Li₂MnO₃ electrodes. These findings directly demonstrate an effective concept for controlling oxygen activities in Li-rich systems, which is critical for developing high-energy cathodes in batteries.