Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Battery materials

Reversing the polycrystalline rules in single-crystal battery positive electrodes

Nature Nanotechnology volume 21, pages 174–175 (2026)Cite this article

Subjects

In single-crystal layered lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxides, Mn is detrimental, and Co is beneficial to battery performance, unlike in polycrystalline compounds, where these roles are reversed.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Fig. 1: Co and Mn have different effects on the degradation of single-crystal NMC positive electrode active materials.

References

  1. Xu, G.-L. et al. Adv. Funct. Mater. 30, 2004748 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Xiao, J. et al. Chem. Rev. 125, 6397–6431 (2025).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. Wang, J. et al. Nat. Nanotechnol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-025-02079-9 (2025).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. Ans, M. et al. Adv. Energy Mater. 15, 2500597 (2025).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Hau, H.-M. et al. Nat. Nanotechnol. 19, 1831–1839 (2024).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. Payne, B. T. et al. Energy Environ. Sci. 18, 8876–8888 (2025).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Dubajic, M. et al. Nat. Nanotechnol. 20, 755–763 (2025).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. House, R. A. et al. Nature 577, 502–508 (2020).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Juhás, P., Farrow, C., Yang, X., Knox, K. & Billinge, S. L. Acta Crystallogr. A 71, 562–568 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Humboldt University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Mikkel Juelsholt

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, New York City, NY, USA

    Mikkel Juelsholt

Authors
  1. Mikkel Juelsholt
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mikkel Juelsholt.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Juelsholt, M. Reversing the polycrystalline rules in single-crystal battery positive electrodes. Nat. Nanotechnol. 21, 174–175 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-025-02078-w

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Version of record:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-025-02078-w

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing