Recent progress on cathode materials for rechargeable magnesium batteries

Rechargeable magnesium battery (RMB) is an attractive technology for next generation battery because of its potential to offer high energy density, low cost and high safety. Despite of recent substantial progresses, the RMBs still need technologically breakthroughs before commercialization. Particularly, development of cathode materials is a key for the commercialization since the performance of cathode affects energy and power densities of RMBs directly. The main challenge in development of cathode for RMBs is poor diffusion of Mg2+ ion in electrode materials owing to strong interaction between doubly charged Mg2+ ion and host materials. To overcome the issue, a lot of attempts such as synthesis of new materials, morphological modifications of materials, doping and substitution of heteroatom into materials and addition of second component have been performed based on the technology of matured Li ion batteries while others are carried out by using new technology for RMBs. Some good reviews about electrode and electrolyte materials for RMBs have been published recently. Thus, this review aims to provide additional information on recent development of the cathode materials in the last 3 ∼ 4 years. Perspectives and challenges for future development of RMBs in terms of cathode materials are also presented.