Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have attracted great attention as the common power source in energy storage fields of large-scale applications such as electrical vehicles (EVs), industries, power plants, and grid-scale energy storage systems (ESSs). Insertion, alloying, and conversion reactions are the main electrochemical energy storage mechanisms in LIBs, which determine their electrochemical properties and performances. The electrochemical reaction mechanisms are determined by several factors including crystal structure, components, and composition of electrode materials. This article reviews a new strategy to compensate for the intrinsic shortcomings of each reaction mechanism by introducing the material systems to form a single compound with different types of reaction mechanisms and to allow the simultaneous hybrid electrochemical reaction of two different mechanisms in a single solid solution phase.
The perovskite solid solutions of the Sr1-xMgxFe3+ 1-τFe4+ τO3-y system (x=0.0, 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3) were synthesized in N2 at 1,150℃. X-ray powder diffraction study assured that all the four samples had cubic symmetries(SM-0: 3.865 Å, SM-1: 3.849 Å, SM-2: 3.833 Å, and SM-3: 3.820 Å) and that the lattice volumes decreased steadily from 57.7 Å3 to 55.7 Å3 with x values. The nonstoichiometric chemical formulas were determined by Mohr salt analysis and with the increase of x values the amounts of Fe4+ ion and oxygen were decreased simultaneously. Thermal analysis showed that SM-0 started to lose its oxygen at 450℃ and SM-1, Sm-2, and SM-3 began to lose their oxygen at around 350~400℃. SM-0 showed almost reversible weight change in the cooling process. All the samples exhibited semiconducting behaviors in the temperature range of 10~400℃. Conductivities of the 4 samples were decreased in the order of SM-0, SM-1, SM-2, and SM-3 at constant temperature. The activation energies of the conductions were in the range of 0.176 eV~0.244 eV.