Manganese-rich layered oxide materials hold great potential as low-cost and high-capacity cathodes for Na-ion batteries. However, they usually form a P2 phase and suffer from fast capacity fade. In this work, an O3 phase sodium cathode has been developed out of a Li and Mn-rich layered material by leveraging the creation of transition metal (TM) and oxygen vacancies and the electrochemical exchange of Na and Li. The Mn-rich layered cathode material remains primarily O3 phase during sodiation/desodiation and can have a full sodiation capacity of ca. 220 mAh g-1 . It delivers ca. 160 mAh g-1 specific capacity between 2-3.8 V with >86 % retention over 250 cycles. The TM and oxygen vacancies pre-formed in the sodiated material enables a reversible migration of TMs from the TM layer to the tetrahedral sites in the Na layer upon de-sodiation and sodiation. The migration creates metastable states, leading to increased kinetic barrier that prohibits a complete O3-P3 phase transition.
Keywords: layered materials; metastability; phase transitions; sodium-ion batteries; vacancies.
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