Lithium intercalation into transition metal oxides: A route to generate new ordered rock salt type structure

Lithium intercalation in oxides is a topic of capital importance for the development of lithium batteries materials. We review herein the lithium insertion process involved in different structures 3D, 2D and 1D. In most of the cases, starting from an anionic cubic close packed array, the topotactic process of alkaline ion insertion, associated with a biphasic process in the potential-composition electrochemical curve, generates an ordered rock salt type structure for the fully reduced phase. Such a behavior allowed us to imagine other fully lithiated compositions that could show really good electrochemical behavior toward the lithium insertion/deinsertion.