Stabilizing the Oxygen Lattice and Reversible Oxygen Redox Chemistry through Structural Dimensionality in Lithium-Rich Cathode Oxides

Lattice-oxygen redox (l-OR) has become an essential companion to the traditional transition-metal (TM) redox charge compensation to achieve high capacity in Li-rich cathode oxides. However, the understanding of l-OR chemistry remains elusive, and a critical question is the structural effect on the stability of l-OR reactions. Herein, the coupling between l-OR and structure dimensionality is studied. We reveal that the evolution of the oxygen-lattice structure upon l-OR in Li-rich TM oxides which have a three-dimensional (3D)-disordered cation framework is relatively stable, which is in direct contrast to the clearly distorted oxygen-lattice framework in Li-rich oxides which have a two-dimensional (2D)/3D-ordered cation structure. Our results highlight the role of structure dimensionality in stabilizing the oxygen lattice in reversible l-OR, which broadens the horizon for designing high-energy-density Li-rich cathode oxides with stable l-OR chemistry.