Record-Breaking Discharge Capacity and Rate Capability in Li─O₂ Batteries Through Magnetic Field-Induced Short-Range...

Aprotic Li─O₂ batteries face significant challenges due to the insulating and insoluble nature of Li₂O₂, which hinders the redox kinetics and severely limits the overall performance. Traditional methods, such as using solid or liquid catalysts to enhance the kinetics, encounter substantial obstacles, in which solid catalysts are limited by their interface with Li₂O₂, while liquid catalysts may lead to shuttle corrosion of the Li anode, would diminish catalytic effectiveness. In this study, we propose a novel approach to address these issues by incorporating magnetic dopants into the discharge products and applying an external magnetic field. This approach results in magnetically assisted Li─O₂ batteries with significantly improved redox kinetics. During discharge, the magnetic field dynamically aligns Co²⁺ centers within the discharge product, forming a short-range ordered magnetic structure with alternating paramagnetic and diamagnetic domains, which enhances the formation kinetics of the discharge product. During charging, these uniformly distributed Co active centers act autocatalytically, accelerating the product decomposition kinetics. This configuration achieves a record-breaking discharge capacity of 115 918 mAh g^-1 and an exceptional rate capability of 6.7 A g^-1. Our results demonstrate that controlling the electronic and ionic transport properties of alkali peroxides can fundamentally enhance cathode reaction kinetics, providing new design principles for high-performance Li─O₂ batteries.