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Mn‐redox‐based oxides and oxyfluorides are considered the most promising earth‐abundant high‐energy cathode materials for next‐generation lithium‐ion batteries. While high capacities are obtained in high‐Mn content cathodes such as Li‐ and Mn‐rich layered and spinel‐type materials, local structure changes and structural distortions ( often lead to voltage fade, capacity decay, and impedance rise, resulting in unacceptable electrochemical performance upon cycling. In the present study, structural transformations that exploit the high capacity of Mn‐rich oxyfluorides while enabling stable cycling, in stark contrast to commonly observed structural changes that result in rapid performance degradation, are reported. It is shown that upon cycling of a cation‐disordered rocksalt (DRX) cathode (Li_1.1Mn_0.8Ti_0.1O_1.9F_0.1, an ultrahigh capacity of ≈320 mAh g⁻¹(energy density of ≈900 Wh kg⁻¹) can be obtained through dynamic structural rearrangements upon cycling , along with a unique voltage profile evolution and capacity rise. At high voltage, the presence of Mn⁴⁺and Li⁺vacancies promotes local cation ordering, leading to the formation of domains of a “δphase” within the disordered framework. On deep discharge, Mn⁴⁺reduction, along with Li⁺insertion transform the structure to a partially ordered DRX phase with aβ′‐LiFeO₂‐type arrangement. At the nanoscale, domains of the in situ formed phases are randomly oriented, allowing highly reversible structural changes and stable electrochemical cycling. These new insights not only help explain the superior electrochemical performance of high‐Mn DRXbut also provide guidance for the future development of Mn‐based, high‐energy density oxide, and oxyfluoride cathode materials.

Lithium‐rich transition metal oxides with a cation‐disordered rocksalt structure (disordered rocksalt oxides or DRX) are promising candidates for sustainable, next‐generation Li‐ion cathodes due to their high energy densities and compositional flexibility, enabling Co‐ and Ni‐free battery chemistries. However, current methods to synthesize DRX compounds require either high temperature (≈1000 °C) sintering for several hours, or high energy ball milling for several days in an inert atmosphere. Both methods are time‐ and energy‐intensive, limiting the scale up of DRX production. The present study reports the rapid synthesis of various DRX compositions in ambient air via a microwave‐assisted solid‐state technique resulting in reaction times as short as 5 min, which are more than two orders of magnitude faster than current synthesis methods. The DRX compounds synthesized via microwave are phase‐pure and have a similar short‐ and long‐range structure as compared to DRX materials synthesized via a standard solid‐state route, resulting in nearly identical electrochemical performance. In some cases, microwave heating allows for better particle size and morphology control. Overall, the rapid and energy‐efficient microwave technique provides a more sustainable route to produce DRX materials, further incentivizes the development of next‐generation DRX cathodes, and is key to accelerating their optimization via high‐throughput studies.

It is shown that structural disorder—in the form of anisotropic, picoscale atomic displacements—modulates the refractive index tensor and results in the giant optical anisotropy observed in BaTiS₃, a quasi‐1D hexagonal chalcogenide. Single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction studies reveal the presence of antipolar displacements of Ti atoms within adjacent TiS₆chains along thec‐axis, and threefold degenerate Ti displacements in thea–bplane.^47/49Ti solid‐state NMR provides additional evidence for those Ti displacements in the form of a three‐horned NMR lineshape resulting from a low symmetry local environment around Ti atoms. Scanning transmission electron microscopy is used to directly observe the globally disordered Tia–bplane displacements and find them to be ordered locally over a few unit cells. First‐principles calculations show that the Tia–bplane displacements selectively reduce the refractive index along theab‐plane, while having minimal impact on the refractive index along the chain direction, thus resulting in a giant enhancement in the optical anisotropy. By showing a strong connection between structural disorder with picoscale displacements and the optical response in BaTiS₃, this study opens a pathway for designing optical materials with high refractive index and functionalities such as large optical anisotropy and nonlinearity.

Cation‐disordered rocksalt (DRX) cathodes have recently emerged as a promising class of cobalt‐free, high‐capacity cathodes for lithium‐ion batteries. To facilitate their commercialization, the development of scalable synthesis techniques providing control over composition and morphology is critical. To this end, a sol‐gel synthesis route to prepare Mn‐rich DRX cathodes with high capacities is presented here. Several compositions with varied Mn content and nominal F doping are successfully prepared using this technique. In‐situ X‐ray diffraction measurements demonstrate that DRX formation proceeds at moderate temperature (800 °C) through the sol‐gel route, which enables intimate mixing among reactive intermediate phases that form at lower temperatures. All synthesized compositions possess cation short‐range order, as evidenced by neutron pair distribution function and electron diffraction analysis. These DRX materials demonstrate promising electrochemical performance with reversible capacities up to 275 mAh g. Compared to the baseline oxide (Li_1.2Mn_0.4Ti_0.4O₂), the Mn‐rich compositions exhibit improved cycling stability, with some showing an increase in capacity upon cycling. Overall, this study demonstrates the feasibility of preparing high‐capacity DRX cathodes through a sol‐gel based synthesis route, which may be further optimized to provide better control over the product morphology compared to traditional synthesis methods.

Vanadium multiredox‐based NASICON‐Na_zV_2−yM_y(PO₄)₃(3 ≤z ≤ 4; M = Al³⁺, Cr³⁺, and Mn²⁺) cathodes are particularly attractive for Na‐ion battery applications due to their high Na insertion voltage (>3.5 V vs Na⁺/Na⁰), reversible storage capacity (≈150 mA h g⁻¹), and rate performance. However, their practical application is hindered by rapid capacity fade due to bulk structural rearrangements at high potentials involving complex redox and local structural changes. To decouple these factors, a series of Mg²⁺‐substituted Na_3+yV_2−yMg_y(PO₄)₃(0 ≤y ≤ 1) cathodes is studied for which the only redox‐active species is vanadium. While X‐ray diffraction (XRD) confirms the formation of solid solutions between they = 0 and 1 end members, X‐ray absorption spectroscopy and solid‐state nuclear magnetic resonance reveal a complex evolution of the local structure upon progressive Mg²⁺substitution for V³⁺. Concurrently, the intercalation voltage rises from 3.35 to 3.45 V, due to increasingly more ionic VO bonds, and the sodium (de)intercalation mechanism transitions from a two‐phase fory ≤ 0.5 to a solid solution process fory ≥ 0.5, as confirmed by in operando XRD, while Na‐ion diffusion kinetics follow a nonlinear trend across the compositional series.