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Over recent years, great efforts have been made to push the limits of layered transition metal oxides for secondary battery cathodes. This is particularly true for overall capacity, which has reached a terminal theoretical value for many materials. One avenue for increasing this capacity during charging is the intercalation of anions post cation deintercalation. This work investigates the charging mechanism of the P3-Na0.5Ni0.25 Mn0.75O2 cathode material through cation (Na) deintercalation and anion (ClO4) intercalation by means of density functional theory. The calculations corroborate experimental findings of increased capacity (135 mAh g-1 to 180 mAh g-1) through the intercalation of anions. However, this work demonstrates that a process of simultaneous cation deintercalation/anion intercalation is the primary charging mechanism, with charge compensation reactions of Ni2+/Ni4+ and O2-/O- occurring within the cathode material. To elucidate this simultaneous process, a novel method for computationally determining anion voltage in which one must consider full electrolyte interactions is proposed. Based on the results, it is believed that a simultaneous cation deintercalation/anion intercalation mechanism provides one potential avenue for the discovery of the next generation of secondary batteries. 

Ca-ion batteries (CIBs) have the potential to provide inexpensive energy storage, but their realization is impeded by the lack of suitable electrolytes. Motivated by recent experimental progress, we perform ab initio molecular dynamics simulations to investigate early decomposition reactions at the anode-electrolyte interface. By examining different combinations of solvent—tetrahydrofuran (THF) or ethylene carbonate (EC)—and salt—Ca(BH 4 ) 2 , Ca(BF 4 ) 2 , Ca(BCl 4 ) 2 , and Ca(ClO 4 ) 2 —we identify a variety of behavioral trends between electrolyte solutions. Next, we perform a separate trajectory with pure THF and gradually increased negative charge; despite an addition of -32 e , no THF decomposition is detected. Charge analysis reveals that in a reductive environment, THF distributes excess charge evenly across its hydrocarbon backbone, while EC concentrates charge on its ester oxygens and carbonyl carbon, resulting in decomposition. Graphs of charge vs. time for both solvents reveal that EC decomposition products can be reduced by up to five electrons, while those of THF are limited to a single electron. Ultimately, we find Ca(BH 4 ) 2 and THF to be the most stable solution investigated herein, corroborating experimental evidence of its suitability as a CIB electrolyte. 

Phenalenyl-based radicals are stable radicals whose electronic properties can be tuned readily by heteroatom substitution. We employ density functional theory-based non-equilibrium Green's function (NEGF-DFT) calculations to show that this class of molecules exhibits tunable spin- and charge-transport properties in single molecule junctions. Our simulations identify the design principles and interplay between unusually high conductivity and strong spin-filtering.