The local electronic environments and energy storage properties of lithium electrodes are investigated through inelastic electron scattering and electrochemical measurements. Experimental and computational methods are developed to characterize the electronic structure of lithiated compounds during electrochemical cycling. An electrochemical investigation of new lithium alloys has led to a bette...

Lithium metal battery is a promising candidate for high-energy-density energy storage. Unfortunately, the strongly reducing nature of lithium metal has been an outstanding challenge causing poor stability and low coulombic efficiency in lithium batteries. For decades, there are significant research efforts to stabilize lithium metal anode. However, such efforts are greatly impeded by the lack o...

Context & Scale This review aims to bridge the fields of inorganic molecular chemistry, electrocatalysis, lithium-ion batteries, and chemical physics of oxides by introducing a unifying concept linking the electronic structures and electrochemical properties of transition metal oxides and complexes. In this work, by reviewing broad literature on the redox behavior of a number of Ni, Co, Fe, and...

Highly stable iron-cobalt phosphide sea-urchins for high performance lithium ion batteries.

In this work, hydrometallurgical recycling of metals from high-cobalt-content spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) laptops was studied using precipitation and solvent extraction as alternative purification processes. Large amounts cobalt (58% by weight), along with nickel (6.2%), manganese (3.06%) lithium (6.09%) are present in LiCoO2 Li2CoMn3O8 prominent Co-rich phases the electrode material. Th...

Rational design of active electrode materials is important for the development of advanced lithium and post-lithium batteries. Ab initio modeling can provide mechanistic understanding of the performance of prospective materials and guide design. We review our recent comparative ab initio studies of lithium, sodium, potassium, magnesium, and aluminum interactions with different phases of several...

We report a facile synthesis of a novel cobalt oxide (Co3O4) hierarchical nanostructure, in which crystalline core-amorphous shell Co3O4 nanoparticles with a bimodal size distribution are uniformly dispersed on ultrathin Co3O4 nanosheets. When tested as anode materials for lithium ion batteries, the as-prepared Co3O4 hierarchical electrodes delivered high lithium storage properties comparing to...