Li2O:Li–Mn–O Disordered Rock‐Salt Nanocomposites as Cathode Prelithiation Additives for High‐Energy Density Li‐Ion Batteries

The direct contact of anode materials and lithium metal [3,4] is a common prelithiation strategy for improving the Coulombic efficiency of the battery, although this is not exempt from several disadvantages mostly related to the use of Li metal in battery manufacture (i.e., incompatibility with ambient environments, common solvents, binders, and thermal processing). These practical challenges, are partly overcome in Stabilized Lithium Metal Powder [5,6] SLMP, where lithium metal is suspended in hydrocarbon solvents providing stability in dry air. Interestingly, SLMP has been used as a fully lithiated anode in batteries utilizing nonlithiated V 6 O 13 or LiV 3 O 8 cathodes. [7] More recently, the also dry air stable Li x Si-Li 2 O core-shell nanoparticles [8] have proven an excellent prelithiation reagent and are potentially compatible with current industrial battery fabrication methods. As an alternative route to the arduous prelithiation of anodes demanding more reactive lithium sources leading to unstable reaction products and low battery potentials, [3] several prelithiation additives of cathode materials have been studied. Sacrificial salts [9] (e.g., azides, [10] oxocarbones, dicarboxylic acids, or hydrazides) contain oxidizable anions that lose electrons during the first charge, forming Li + donors and gaseous species (e.g., CO, CO 2 , or N 2) amounting to ≈70% of the salt