A Low-Temperature Lithiation/Short-Time High-Temperature Crystallization Strategy for Crack-Free Ni-Rich Cathodes with Inherited Morphology and Enhanced Cycling Stability

The practical application of Ni-rich layered oxide cathodes (NRLOs) is significantly limited by microcrack formation originating from anisotropic lattice strain during cycling. Conventional high-temperature sintering often disrupts the precursor’s textured morphology, exacerbating mechanical degradation. Herein, we propose a low-temperature lithiation/short-time high-temperature crystallization (LL–SHC) strategy to address this issue. Through preoxidation of the Ni0.83Co0.07Mn0.10(OH)2 precursor to β-TMOOH, followed by hydrothermal lithiation at 150 °C and rapid crystallization at 700 °C for only 1 h, the radially aligned texture of the precursor is largely retained. The resulting cathode delivers a high specific capacity (197.35 mAh g–1 at 0.5C) and superior cycling stability (88.64% capacity retention after 200 cycles). More importantly, in situ XRD and postcycling microscopy reveal that the preserved texture effectively guides stress release, while the material exhibits a suppressed H2–H3 phase transition with reduced c-axis contraction (0.97% vs 1.36% in conventionally sintered cathodes). These combined effects enable the secondary particles to remain entirely crack free even after 400 cycles. This work provides a morphology-inheriting, energy-efficient synthesis route for designing durable high-energy cathodes, highlighting the synergy between microstructure inheritance and lattice stability for advanced lithium-ion batteries.