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‘Breathing-Crystals’ The Origin of Electrochemical Activity of Mesoporous Li-MnO2

Sayle, D.C., Sayle, T.X.T., Ngoepe, P. E. (2016) ‘Breathing-Crystals’ The Origin of Electrochemical Activity of Mesoporous Li-MnO2. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 4 . pp. 6456-6464. ISSN 2050-7488. E-ISSN 2050-7496. (doi:10.1039/C6TA01832G) (KAR id:54690)

Abstract

Akin to Le Chatalier’s principle, we show that a mesoporous material can mitigate the effect of stress by expanding or contracting elastically into the pore space; we simulate this ‘breathing-crystal’ phenomenon using MD simulation. In particular, our simulations reveal that mesoporous Li-MnO2 is electrochemically active because the stress, associated with charge cycling, does not influence the structure or dimensions of the (unlithiated) 1x1 tunnels in which the lithium ions intercalate and reside. Conversely, the parent bulk material suffers structural collapse and blockage of the 1x1 tunnels under stress. The mechanism associated with Li deintercalation is presented together with the activation energy barriers, which are calculated to be 0.4eV - irrespective of whether the mesoporous host is un-strained or under considerable (1.6 GPa) tensile or compressive stress.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1039/C6TA01832G
Subjects: Q Science > QD Chemistry > QD478 Solid State Chemistry
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Natural Sciences > Physics and Astronomy
Depositing User: Dean Sayle
Date Deposited: 29 Mar 2016 14:10 UTC
Last Modified: 09 Dec 2022 03:02 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/54690 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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