As the world accelerates toward electric mobility and renewable energy storage, the demand for lithium-ion batteries with higher energy density and longer cycle life has never been greater. The cathode ultimately sets the practical upper limit of battery energy density. Lithium nickel oxide (LiNiO 2 ) stands out as one of the most promising candidates, offering a theoretical capacity of approximately 275 mAh g −1 , combined with abundant nickel reserves and low cost. Yet despite its allure, LiNiO 2 has proven notoriously difficult to synthesize without introducing structural flaws that severely compromise battery performance.
A research team led by Professor Xiangming He at Tsinghua University has deeply investigated a two-step synthetic strategy that overcomes this long-standing challenge. Their work was recently published in Nano Research on September 4, 2026.
The conventional industrial route for synthesizing LiNiO 2 is high-temperature solid-state synthesis, yet this method is plagued by multiple issues. Poor solid-state contact between raw materials, mismatched oxidation and lithiation kinetics, and the inevitable formation of electrochemically inert rocksalt phases all necessitate prolonged high-temperature sintering. This in turn leads to lithium loss, particle coarsening, and grain-boundary fusion, ultimately impairing both rate capability and cycling stability.
The Tsinghua team’s LR-HC strategy takes a radically different path. First, through an oxidation reaction, the transition-metal hydroxide precursor is converted into an ordered layered β -TMOOH intermediate, which contains interlayer vacancies that allow Li⁺ intercalation and migration. This enables topotactic lithiation via Li + /H + exchange at relatively low temperatures (below 200°C), thereby bypassing the rocksalt intermediate phase that is unavoidable in the high-temperature solid-state route and directly yielding electrochemically active layered LiNiO 2 . Subsequently, only a brief high-temperature crystallization treatment at 700°C for one hour is required to substantially improve the degree of lithiation, crystallinity, and layered structural ordering, while avoiding the grain coarsening and side reactions associated with prolonged sintering. This strategy achieves the transformation from precursor to target product under relatively mild conditions, opening an entirely new technological pathway for the synthesis of nickel-based cathode materials.
Electrochemical test results demonstrate that, compared to products obtained via the conventional high-temperature solid-state method, the LiNiO 2 material prepared through the LR-HC route exhibits significantly improved first-cycle Coulombic efficiency and superior cycling stability, confirming the effectiveness of the LR-HC strategy in enhancing reversible capacity and structural stability. Employing in-situ variable-temperature X-ray diffraction techniques, the research team quantitatively tracked the phase evolution and structural changes along both synthetic routes, revealing the complete mechanism underlying the LR-HC synthesis of cathode materials. On this basis, they further established the correlations among synthesis conditions, material structure, and electrochemical performance. This work deepens the fundamental understanding of the synthesis science of nickel-based layered cathode materials and provides theoretical guidance for the process optimization and performance-oriented tailoring of these materials.
The contributors include Jinkun Wang, Li Wang, Hang Li, and Xiangming He from the Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China; Anhao Zuo, Zhe Li from the School of Vehicle and Mobility at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China; and Yunjun Xu, Di Cheng from the Henan Kelong New Energy Co., Ltd. in Xinxiang Henan, China.
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 22279070 [L. Wang]), the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (L242005 [X. He]) and the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2025YFF0513401[L. Wang]). In addition, the authors would like to thank the “Explorer 100” cluster system of Tsinghua National Laboratory for Information Science and Technology for facility support.
DOI Link:
https://doi.org/10.26599/NR.2026.94909031
About Nano Research
Nano Research is a peer-reviewed, open access, international and interdisciplinary research journal, sponsored by Tsinghua University and the Chinese Chemical Society, published by Tsinghua University Press on the platform SciOpen. It publishes original high-quality research and significant review articles on all aspects of nanoscience and nanotechnology, ranging from basic aspects of the science of nanoscale materials to practical applications of such materials. After 18 years of development, it has become one of the most influential academic journals in the nano field. Nano Research has published more than 1,000 papers every year from 2022, with its cumulative count surpassing 8,000 articles. In 2025 InCites Journal Citation Reports, its 2025 IF is 9.4 (8.3, 5 years), and it continues to be the Q1 area among the four subject classifications. Nano Research Award, established by Nano Research together with TUP and Springer Nature in 2013, and Nano Research Young Innovators (NR45) Awards, established by Nano Research in 2018, have become international academic awards with global influence.
Nano Research
Bypassing the Rocksalt Intermediate: A Low-Temperature Route to High-Performance LiNiO2 Cathodes with Suppressed Phase Transformation
4-Sep-2026