Chemists pin down the cause for energy losses in high-capacity lithium-ion battery cathodes

An international team, which included Skoltech researchers and their colleagues from France, the United States, and Switzerland, found out why energy losses occur during the charge-discharge cycle in lithium-ion batteries with cathodes made from complex lithium-rich oxides of transition metals. Published in Nature Materials, the new study shows that the difference in the charge-discharge operating voltage leading to low energy efficiency is due to long-lived kinetically hindered intermediate spe...