Aniline-induced dual-functional integration for enhancing cycling stability of Li-rich layered oxide cathodes

As one class of important functional materials, lithium-rich layered oxides (LLO) are considered as promising cathodes for advanced Li-ion batteries due to their high theoretical specific capacity. Nonetheless, their practical applications are greatly hindered by the inferior rate capability and pronounced capacity and voltage decay under cycling conditions. In this work, the aniline is innovatively employed as an additive to fabricate LLO by controllable annealing treatment of the sol-gel precursor under an air atmosphere. Both experimental and theoretical analyses reveal that the introduction of aniline induces oxygen vacancies, effectively suppresses Li + /Ni 2+ cation mixing, consequently mitigating lattice oxygen release, enhancing Li + diffusion kinetics, and stabilizing the crystal structure. Consequently, the optimized aniline-modified sample (AMS-1) delivers high specific capacity and superior rate performance. Notably, ASM-1 can preserve 84.9% of its capacity after 400 cycles at 0.5C, exhibiting an average discharge voltage fade of merely 1.27 mV per cycle. This work offers a facile small-molecule-induced dual-functional integration strategy to elevate the cycling stability of LLO, which benefits from spurring the development of high-performance Li-rich cathode materials and advanced energy storage systems.