On the Utility of Spinel Oxide Hosts for Magnesium-Ion Batteries

There is immense interest to develop Mg-ion batteries, but finding suitable cathode materials has been a challenge. The spinel structure has many advantages for ion insertion and has been successfully used in Li-ion batteries. We present here findings on the attempts to extract Mg from MgMn2O4-based spinels with acid (H2SO4) and with NO2BF4. The acid treatment was able to fully remove all Mg from MgMn2O4 by following a mechanism involving the disproportionation of Mn3+, and the extraction rate decreased with increasing cation disorder. Samples with additional Mg2+ ions in the octahedral sites (e.g., Mg1.1Mn1.9O4 and Mg1.5Mn1.5O4) also exhibit complete or near complete demagnesiation due to an additional mechanism involving ion exchange of Mg2+ by H+, but no Mg could be extracted from MgMnAlO4 due to the disruption of MnMn interaction/contact across shared octahedral edges. In contrast, no Mg could be extracted with the oxidizing agent NO2BF4 from MgMn2O4 or Mg1.5Mn1.5O4 as the electrostatic repulsion between the divalent Mg2+ ions prevents Mg2+ diffusion through the 16c octahedral sites, unlike Li+ diffusion, suggesting that spinels may not serve as potential hosts for Mg-ion batteries. The ability to extract Mg with acid in contrast to that with NO2BF4 is attributed to Mn dissolution from the lattice and the consequent reduction in electrostatic repulsion. The findings could provide insights toward the design of Mg hosts for Mg-ion batteries.