K(+)-doped Li(1.2)Mn(0.54)Co(0.13)Ni(0.13)O2: a novel cathode material with an enhanced cycling stability for lithium-ion batteries.

Li-rich layered oxides have attracted much attention for their potential application as cathode materials in lithium ion batteries, but still suffer from inferior cycling stability and fast voltage decay during cycling. How to eliminate the detrimental spinel growth is highly challenging in this regard. Herein, in situ K(+)-doped Li1.20Mn0.54Co0.13Ni0.13O2 was successfully prepared using a potassium containing α-MnO2 as the starting material. A systematic investigation demonstrates for the first time, that the in situ potassium doping stabilizes the host layered structure by prohibiting the formation of spinel structure during cycling. This is likely due to the fact that potassium ions in the lithium layer could weaken the formation of trivacancies in lithium layer and Mn migration to form spinel structure, and that the large ionic radius of potassium could possibly aggravate steric hindrance for spinel growth. Consequently, the obtained oxides exhibited a superior cycling stability with 85% of initial capacity (315 mA h g(-1)) even after 110 cycles. The results reported in this work are fundamentally important, which could provide a vital hint for inhibiting the undesired layered-spinel intergrowth with alkali ion doping and might be extended to other classes of layered oxides for excellent cycling performance.