As one of the recent hot topics, cobalt-free batteries can simply be considered as an upgraded version of the current commercial ternary lithium batteries. Because of their higher energy density and lower production costs, they are popular among many battery manufacturers. So, as a typical transition metal N-type semiconductor material, how is tungsten trioxide used in cobalt-free lithium ion battery?

Tungsten oxide-based nanomaterials have attracted a lot of attention for their use in building various electrochemical energy devices. In particular, electrochromic devices and optical change devices have been intensively investigated in terms of energy conservation.

Researchers at the Shanghai Institute of Microsystems and Information Technology (SIMIT), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) have demonstrated that doping tungsten oxide (WO₃) catalysts with appropriate cations can change the interfacial structure, surface chemical state, and bandgap values, thus improving the performance of the basic hydrogen electrolyte reaction (HER). In the experiments, cation (Ni, Co, and Fe) doped WO₃ catalysts were synthesized on nickel foam. The Co-doped catalysts (Co WO) exhibited remarkable HER activity.

Considerable interest in tungsten oxide polymorphs (WO_3-x) nanomaterials has been generated due to their abundance in nature, easy availability, high stability, non-recombination, and chemical diversity, and many advances have been made from traditional catalysts and electronics to emerging artificial intelligence. A recent study from Qingdao University presents the latest progress of WO_3-x polycrystals and their multifunctional applications.