One of the prevailing approaches to tune properties of materials is lattice doping with metal cations. Aluminum is a common choice, and numerous studies have demonstrated the ability of Al 3+ doping to stabilize different positive electrode materials, such as Li [Ni-Co-Mn] In recent decades, rechargeable batteries have demonstrated tremendous promise as alternate energy storage devices. In particular, Li-ion batteries (LIB) have revolutionized electronic devices, ranging from portable electronics to electric vehicles (EVs), due to their excellent power and energy density.1 The bottleneck of LIB in terms of capacity and performance is often considered to be the nature of the positive electrodes (cathodes).1-6 Among the cathode materials for LIB, layered transition metal (TM) oxides (LiTMO 2, TM = Ni, Co, Mn) are very promising candidates, and in particular LiCoO 2 . However, in spite of the commercialization and wide use of LiCoO 2 in portable LIB, it suffers from several drawbacks. Key disadvantages include high cost and safety concerns associated with cobalt.2-6 Other limitations of LiCoO 2 include low practical capacity (140 mAhg â1 ) and oxygen loss on charge. 7-10 Consequently, in a quest to move beyond LiCoO 2 , a new class of mixed transition metal oxides were designed, wherein Ni and Mn were introduced into the material (i.e. Li[Ni x Co y Mn z ]O 2 or simply NCM).11,12 The Ni-rich variants of these materials have emerged as the most promising low-cost and high capacity alternatives to the already mature LiCoO 2 . 10,13,14,11 These Nirich materials show improved performance; however, the capacities and stabilities are still too low for practical commercialization for EVs.
12Key hurdles in the commercialization of these materials for EV applications are associated with oxygen release at high voltages and cation migration, which leads to structural transformations. 15,16 Recently, it has been demonstrated that oxygen loss and cation migration are concurrent events. 16,17 To address these challenges, lattice doping of cations 18 has been adopted to improve the performance of these materials, and various cations were explored.18-24 A particularly promising dopant for these materials is Al, although its effect is still not fully understood. Early theoretical studies proposed that Al substitution in LiCoO 2 25 and NCMs 26 could increase the intercalation potential, and these predictions were verified experimentally. 27 Various studies reported beneficial effects of Al doping on LiCoO 2 and LiNiO 2 and NCMs. ), and found that Al doping reduces the reversible capacity, but significantly improves the thermal stability of the electrode in the de-intercalated state.36 Al doping in Li-rich-Mn-rich NCMs has also improved the thermal stabilities of these materials. 37 In a detailed theoretical study, Dianat et al. studied the effect of Al doping on Li-Mn-Ni-O based cathode materials.38 They reported that Al doping stabilizes the partially intercalated states, but increases the Li-diffusion barriers. Park et al. studie...