Selectivity of Electrochemical Ion Insertion into Manganese Dioxide Polymorphs

The ion insertion redox chemistry of manganese dioxide has diverse applications in energy storage, catalysis, and chemical separations. Unique properties derive from the assembly of Mn-O octahedra into polymorphic structures that can host protons and nonprotonic cations in interstitial sites. Despite many reports on individual ion-polymorph couples, much less is known about the selectivity of electrochemical ion insertion in MnO₂. In this work, we use density functional theory to holistically compare the electrochemistry of AMnO₂ (where A = H⁺, Li⁺, Na⁺, K⁺, Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺, Zn²⁺, Al³⁺) in aqueous and nonaqueous electrolytes. We develop an efficient computational scheme demonstrating that Hubbard-U correction has a greater impact on calculating accurate redox energetics than choice of exchange-correlation functional. Using PBE+U, we find that for nonprotonic cations, ion selectivity depends on the oxygen coordination environments inside a polymorph. When H⁺ is present, however, the driving force to form hydroxyl bonds is usually stronger. In aqueous electrolytes, only three ion-polymorph pairs are thermodynamically stable within water's voltage stability window (Na⁺ and K⁺ in α-MnO₂, and Li⁺ in λ-MnO₂), with all other ion insertion being metastable. We find Al³⁺ may insert into the δ, R, and λ polymorphs across the full 2-electron redox of MnO₂ at high voltage; however, electrolytes for multivalent ions must be designed to impede the formation of insoluble precipitates and facilitate cation desolvation. We also show that small ions coinsert with water in α-MnO₂ to achieve greater coordination by oxygen, while solvation energies and kinetic effects dictate water coinsertion in δ-MnO₂. Taken together, these findings explain reports of mixed ion insertion mechanisms in aqueous electrolytes and highlight promising design strategies for safe, high energy density electrochemical energy storage, desalination batteries, and electrocatalysts.