Design of battery materials via defects and doping

TL;DR

This paper discusses how defect physics and doping strategies can be used to understand and design better battery materials, focusing on transition-metal oxides and defect landscapes.

Contribution

It introduces a first-principles methodology for studying defects in complex oxides and explores defect landscapes and doping effects relevant to battery cathode materials.

Findings

Defect landscapes influence electronic and ionic conduction.

Doping can modify defect properties and enhance performance.

Guidelines for defect-controlled synthesis of battery materials.

Abstract

This chapter illustrates the use of defect physics as a conceptual and theoretical framework for understanding and designing battery materials. It starts with a methodology for first-principles studies of defects in complex transition-metal oxides. The chapter then considers defects that are activated in a cathode material during synthesis, during measurements, and during battery use. Through these cases, it discusses possible defect landscapes in the material and their implications, guidelines for materials design via defect-controlled synthesis, mechanisms for electronic and ionic conduction and for electrochemical extraction and (re-)insertion, and effects of doping. Although specific examples are taken from studies of battery cathode materials, the computational approach and discussions are general and applicable to any ionic, electronic, or mixed ionic-electronic conducting materials.