Coherent-Precipitation-Stabilized Phase Formation in Over-Stoichiometric Rocksalt-Type Li Superionic Conductors.

Rationalizing synthetic pathways is crucial for material design and property optimization, especially for polymorphic and metastable phases. Over-stoichiometric rocksalt (ORX) compounds, characterized by their face-sharing configurations, are a promising group of materials with unique properties; however, their development is significantly hindered by challenges in synthesizability. Here, taking the recently identified Li superionic conductor, over-stoichiometric rocksalt Li-In-Sn-O (o-LISO) material as a prototypical ORX compound, the mechanisms of phase formation are systematically investigated.

Accelerating the Electrochemical Formation of the δ Phase in Manganese-Rich Rocksalt Cathodes.

Mn-rich disordered rocksalt materials with Li-excess (DRX) materials have emerged as a promising class of earth-abundant and energy-dense next-generation cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries. Recently, an electrochemical transformation to a spinel-like "δ" phase has been reported in Mn-rich DRX materials, with improved capacity, rate capability, and cycling stability compared with previous DRX compositions. However, this transformation unfolds slowly over the course of cycling, complicating the development and understanding of these materials.

Oxygen Dimerization-Driven Cation Migration Induces Voltage Hysteresis in Disordered Rocksalt Cathodes.

Despite the potential to increase the energy limit of Li-rich cathodes by using oxygen redox, its practicality has been limited by the accompanying structural changes and voltage hysteresis. While voltage hysteresis is commonly associated with transition metal (TM) migration and oxygen dimerization, the specific contribution of each is unclear. We provide a mechanistic insight into how each of these changes induces hysteresis in a representative Li-rich disordered rocksalt cathode, LiMnTiO.

Voltage Mining for (De)lithiation-Stabilized Cathodes and a Machine Learning Model for Li-Ion Cathode Voltage.

Advances in lithium-metal anodes have inspired interest in discovery of Li-free cathodes, most of which are natively found in their charged state. This is in contrast to today's commercial lithium-ion battery cathodes, which are more stable in their discharged state. In this study, we combine calculated cathode voltage information from both categories of cathode materials, covering 5577 and 2423 total unique structure pairs, respectively.

Chemical Origin of in Situ Carbon Dioxide Outgassing from a Cation-Disordered Rock Salt Cathode.

In situ carbon dioxide (CO) outgassing is a common phenomenon in lithium-ion batteries (LiBs), primarily due to parasitic side reactions at the cathode-electrolyte interface. However, little is known about the chemical origins of the in situ CO released from emerging Li-excess cation-disordered rock salt (DRX) cathodes. In this study, we selectively labeled various carbon sources with C in cathodes containing a representative DRX material, LiMnTiO (LMTO), and performed differential electrochemical mass spectrometry (DEMS) during galvanostatic cycling in a carbonate-based electrolyte.

Direct Lithium Extraction from α-Spodumene through Solid-State Reactions for Sustainable LiCO Production.

With increasing battery demand comes a need for diversified Li sources beyond brines. Among all Li-bearing minerals, spodumene is most often used for its high Li content and natural abundance. However, the traditional approach to process spodumene is costly and energy-intensive, requiring the mineral be transformed from its natural α to β phase at >1000 °C.

Quantifying the regime of thermodynamic control for solid-state reactions during ternary metal oxide synthesis.

The success of solid-state synthesis often hinges on the first intermediate phase that forms, which determines the remaining driving force to produce the desired target material. Recent work suggests that when reaction energies are large, thermodynamics primarily dictates the initial product formed, regardless of reactant stoichiometry. Here, we validate this principle and quantify its constraints by performing in situ characterization on 37 pairs of reactants.

The Limited Incorporation and Role of Fluorine in Mn-rich Disordered Rocksalt Cathodes.

Disordered rocksalt oxide (DRX) cathodes are promising candidates for next-generation Co- and Ni-free Li-ion batteries. While fluorine substitution for oxygen has been explored as an avenue to enhance their performance, the amount of fluorine incorporated into the DRX structure is particularly challenging to quantify and impedes our ability to relate fluorination to electrochemical performance. Herein, an experimental-computational method combining Li and F solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance, and cluster expansion Monte Carlo simulations, is developed to determine the composition of DRX oxyfluorides.

First-Principles and Experimental Investigation of ABO Zircons as Calcium Intercalation Cathodes.

Identifying next-generation batteries with multivalent ions, such as Ca is an active area of research to meet the increasing demand for large-scale, renewable energy storage solutions. Despite the promise of higher energy densities with multivalent batteries, one of their main challenges is addressing the sluggish kinetics in cathodes that arise from stronger electrostatic interactions between the multivalent ion and host lattice. In this paper, zircons are theoretically and experimentally evaluated as Ca cathodes.

Alkali-Ion-Assisted Activation of ε-VOPO as a Cathode Material for Mg-Ion Batteries.

Rechargeable multivalent-ion batteries are attractive alternatives to Li-ion batteries to mitigate their issues with metal resources and metal anodes. However, many challenges remain before they can be practically used due to the low solid-state mobility of multivalent ions. In this study, a promising material identified by high-throughput computational screening is investigated, ε-VOPO, as a Mg cathode.

The nonexistence of a paddlewheel effect in superionic conductors.

Since the 1980s, the paddlewheel effect has been suggested as a mechanism to boost lithium-ion diffusion in inorganic materials via the rotation of rotor-like anion groups. However, it remains unclear whether the paddlewheel effect, defined as large-angle anion group rotations assisting Li hopping, indeed exists; furthermore, the physical mechanism by which the anion-group dynamics affect lithium-ion diffusion has not yet been established. In this work, we differentiate various types of rotational motions of anion groups and develop quaternion-based algorithms to detect, quantify, and relate them to lithium-ion motion in ab initio molecular dynamics simulations.

Structured information extraction from scientific text with large language models.

Extracting structured knowledge from scientific text remains a challenging task for machine learning models. Here, we present a simple approach to joint named entity recognition and relation extraction and demonstrate how pretrained large language models (GPT-3, Llama-2) can be fine-tuned to extract useful records of complex scientific knowledge. We test three representative tasks in materials chemistry: linking dopants and host materials, cataloging metal-organic frameworks, and general composition/phase/morphology/application information extraction.

Unlocking Li superionic conductivity in face-centred cubic oxides via face-sharing configurations.

Oxides with a face-centred cubic (fcc) anion sublattice are generally not considered as solid-state electrolytes as the structural framework is thought to be unfavourable for lithium (Li) superionic conduction. Here we demonstrate Li superionic conductivity in fcc-type oxides in which face-sharing Li configurations have been created through cation over-stoichiometry in rocksalt-type lattices via excess Li. We find that the face-sharing Li configurations create a novel spinel with unconventional stoichiometry and raise the energy of Li, thereby promoting fast Li-ion conduction.

Text Mining the Literature to Inform Experiments and Rationalize Impurity Phase Formation for BiFeO.

We used data-driven methods to understand the formation of impurity phases in BiFeO thin-film synthesis through the sol-gel technique. Using a high-quality dataset of 331 synthesis procedures and outcomes extracted manually from 177 scientific articles, we trained decision tree models that reinforce important experimental heuristics for the avoidance of phase impurities but ultimately show limited predictive capability. We find that several important synthesis features, identified by our model, are often not reported in the literature.

Selective formation of metastable polymorphs in solid-state synthesis.

Metastable polymorphs often result from the interplay between thermodynamics and kinetics. Despite advances in predictive synthesis for solution-based techniques, there remains a lack of methods to design solid-state reactions targeting metastable materials. Here, we introduce a theoretical framework to predict and control polymorph selectivity in solid-state reactions.

Selective Synthesis of Defect-Rich LaMnO by Low-Temperature Anion Cometathesis.

The synthesis of complex oxides at low temperatures brings forward aspects of chemistry not typically considered. This study focuses on perovskite LaMnO, which is of interest for its correlated electronic behavior tied to the oxidation state and thus the spin configuration of manganese. Traditional equilibrium synthesis of these materials typically requires synthesis reaction temperatures in excess of 1000 °C, followed by subsequent annealing steps at lower temperatures and different (O) conditions to manipulate the oxygen content postsynthesis (e.

Design Strategies of Spinel Oxide Frameworks Enabling Reversible Mg-Ion Intercalation.

ConspectusReversible Mg intercalation in metal oxide frameworks is a key enabler for an operational Mg-ion battery with high energy density needed for the next generation of energy storage technologies. While functional Mg-ion batteries have been achieved in structures with soft anions (e.g.

An autonomous laboratory for the accelerated synthesis of novel materials.

To close the gap between the rates of computational screening and experimental realization of novel materials, we introduce the A-Lab, an autonomous laboratory for the solid-state synthesis of inorganic powders. This platform uses computations, historical data from the literature, machine learning (ML) and active learning to plan and interpret the outcomes of experiments performed using robotics. Over 17 days of continuous operation, the A-Lab realized 41 novel compounds from a set of 58 targets including a variety of oxides and phosphates that were identified using large-scale ab initio phase-stability data from the Materials Project and Google DeepMind.

Crystal Structures and Phase Stability of the LiS-PS System from First Principles.

The LiS-PS pseudo-binary system has been a valuable source of promising superionic conductors, with α-LiPS, β-LiPS, HT-LiPS, and LiPS having excellent room-temperature Li-ion conductivity >0.1 mS/cm. The metastability of these phases at ambient temperature motivates a study to quantify their thermodynamic accessibility.

Atomic-scale probing of short-range order and its impact on electrochemical properties in cation-disordered oxide cathodes.

Chemical short-range-order has been widely noticed to dictate the electrochemical properties of Li-excess cation-disordered rocksalt oxides, a class of cathode based on earth abundant elements for next-generation high-energy-density batteries. Existence of short-range-order is normally evidenced by a diffused intensity pattern in reciprocal space, however, derivation of local atomic arrangements of short-range-order in real space is hardly possible. Here, by a combination of aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy, electron diffraction, and cluster-expansion Monte Carlo simulations, we reveal the short-range-order is a convolution of three basic types: tetrahedron, octahedron, and cube.

Autonomous and dynamic precursor selection for solid-state materials synthesis.

Solid-state synthesis plays an important role in the development of new materials and technologies. While in situ characterization and ab-initio computations have advanced our understanding of materials synthesis, experiments targeting new compounds often still require many different precursors and conditions to be tested. Here we introduce an algorithm (ARROWS) designed to automate the selection of optimal precursors for solid-state materials synthesis.