Comments on stabilizing layered manganese oxide electrodes for Li batteries

•The performance of xLi2MnO3•(1-x)LiMn0.5Ni0.5O2 cathodes with x ≥ 0.7 was evaluated.•x = 0.7 was found to be comparable to practically-considered materials with x ≤ 0.5.•Importance of Mn-Ni interactions in high Li2MnO3-content materials is implicated.

An electrochemical study of structurally-integrated xLi2MnO3•(1 −x)LiMn0.5Ni0.5O2 ‘composite’ materials has been undertaken to investigate the stability of electrochemically-activated electrodes at the Li2MnO3-rich end of the Li2MnO3–LiMn0.5Ni0.5O2 tie-line, i.e., for 0.7 ≤ x ≤ 0.95. Excellent performance was observed for x = 0.7 in lithium half-cells; comparable to activated electrodes that have significantly lower values of x and are traditionally the preferred materials of choice. Electrodes with higher manganese content (x ≥ 0.8) showed significantly reduced performance. Implications for stabilizing low-cost, manganese-rich, layered lithium-metal-oxide electrode materials are discussed.