Advancing Sodium-Ion Battery Cathodes: A Low-Cost, Eco-Friendly Mechanofusion Route from TiO Coating to Ti Doping.

Layered oxide battery cathodes often require extra stabilization strategies, such as surface coating or doping, to mitigate side reactions and enhance longevity. Conventional methods such as aqueous deposition and atomic layer deposition are costly and environmentally unfriendly and even damage the original structure, especially for air-sensitive sodium-ion battery (SIB) cathodes. Herein, we introduce an all-dry mechanofusion technique that modifies hydroxide precursors with TiO coating before sintering with a sodium source.

electrochemical transformation of Ni to NiOOH as an effective electrode for water oxidation reaction.

The poor kinetic background with the four-electron transfer of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) was eradicated using a nickel-based catalyst, which was identified as an alternative to noble-metal catalysts. Here, we report the simple formation of an earth-abundant nickel oxyhydroxide (NiOOH) electrocatalyst for efficient OER in an alkaline medium. Electroless material preparation, namely, the direct modification of a gas diffusion layer (GDL) with a nickel salt, was studied, and the layered oxyhydroxide phase was found to influence the rate of the OER.