Current bottlenecks in cobalt (Co) supply have negatively impacted commercial battery production and inspired the development of cathode materials that are less reliant on Co. However, complete Co elimination is prevented by the lack of fundamental understanding of the impact of Co on cathode capacity and structural stability, as well as the lack of effective substitute components in practice. Here we investigate the roles of Co in purposely designed systems that include both Co-rich and Mn-substituted Co-free cathodes. Our results affirmed that Co plays an undeniable role in fast capacity and/or structural degradation, and found that Co is more destructive than Ni at high potentials, which offers unexpected but encouraging perspectives for Co reduction. Moreover, Mn substitution effectively alleviates the destructive effects of Co and enables a high potential functionality. With these fundamental discoveries, we demonstrated a series of LiNi_αMn_βX_γO₂ (X = single or multiple dopants) as a promising candidate for Co-free cathodes.

目前钴 (Co) 供应的瓶颈对商业电池生产产生了负面影响，并激发了对钴的依赖程度较低的正极材料的开发。然而，由于缺乏对钴对正极容量和影响的基本了解，无法完全消除钴。结构稳定性，以及在实践中缺乏有效的替代成分。在这里，我们研究了钴在专门设计的系统中的作用，包括富钴和锰取代的无钴正极。我们的结果证实了 Co 在快速容量和/或结构降解方面发挥着不可否认的作用，并发现 Co 在高电位下比 Ni 更具破坏性，这为 Co 还原提供了意想不到但令人鼓舞的前景。而且，Mn替代有效地减轻了Co的破坏作用并实现了高电位功能。有了这些基本发现，我们展示了一系列 LiNi_α Mn _β X _γ O ₂ (X = 单一或多种掺杂剂) 作为无钴正极的有希望的候选者。