Cationic and Anionic Redox of Battery Cathodes Investigated by Advanced Synchrotron-Based Mapping of Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering

Redox reaction builds the foundation stone for the energy density of rechargeable battery cathodes. Probing and understanding the redox reaction behavior is crucial, but also extremely formidable, which requires individual and reliable detection of cationic and anionic redox states. Fortunately, the recently developed ultra-high-efficiency mapping of resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (mRIXS) has emerged as a powerful tool to probe the battery chemistry states. Here, the latest advances of employing advanced mRIXS is summarized to investigate the cationic and anionic redox mechanism of battery cathodes during electrochemical operation. Owing to the new dimension of information along the emission energy and high sensitivity to valence 3d states, 3d transition-metal L-edge (TM-L) mRIXS can eliminate the lineshape distortion in conventional 3d TM-L fluorescence X-ray absorption spectra and investigate the cationic redox quantitatively. Moreover, O-K mRIXS could fingerprint the intrinsic oxidized lattice oxygen states and quantify the oxygen redox (OR) reversibility, thus demystifying the controversy in traditional wisdom. In addition, different modification strategies coupled with underlying mechanisms for regulating the activity and reversibility of OR utilizing mRIXS are also summarized. This review provides valuable guidance for further exploration of underlying reaction mechanisms of battery cathodes by mRIXS, along with both technological and scientific improvements. Recent progress and prospects of mRIXS for elucidating both cationic and anionic redox chemistries of battery cathodes are reviewed, which aims to help advance the fundamental understanding of the complex charge compensation mechanism in the field of battery research and further arouse the attention of scientists for further developments of mRIXS techniques in vast fields beyond recharge batteries. image