Approaching the capacity limit of lithium cobalt oxide in lithium ion batteries via lanthanum and aluminium doping

Lithium cobalt oxides (LiCoO2) possess a high theoretical specific capacity of 274 mAh g–1. However, cycling LiCoO2-based batteries to voltages greater than 4.35 V versus Li/Li+ causes significant structural instability and severe capacity fade. Consequently, commercial LiCoO2 exhibits a maximum capacity of only ~165 mAh g–1. Here, we develop a doping technique to tackle this long-standing issue of instability and thus increase the capacity of...