Rational material design of Li-excess metal oxides with disordered rock salt structure

This review article summarizes recent research development on a new class of electrode materials with a cation-disordered rock salt structure for energy storage applications. Historically, oxide-based electrode materials with the disordered rock salt structure are regarded as “electrochemically inactive.” However, recent experimental and theoretical research reveals that many oxides with the disordered rock salt structure can be utilized as high-capacity electrode materials, which deliver a much larger reversible capacity compared with traditional and cation ordered layered materials used for practical battery applications. For these emerging electrode materials, higher energy density is achieved relying on anionic and/or cationic redox as multi-electron reactions. Moreover, this anionic/cationic redox for Li-excess materials with the rock salt structure is effectively activated for nano-sized materials. These new trends for the material design on high-capacity electrode materials are highlighted and the future direction to design Li/Na insertion materials for energy storage applications is outlooked.