Lithium metal borate (LiMBO₃) family of insertion materials for Li-ion batteries: a sneak peak

Rechargeable lithium-ion battery remains the leading electrochemical energy-storage device, albeit demanding steady effort of design and development of superior cathode materials. Polyanionic framework compounds are widely explored in search for such cathode contenders. Here, lithium metal borate (LiMBO₃) forms a unique class of insertion materials having the lowest weight polyanion (i.e., BO₃ ³⁻), thus offering the highest possible theoretical capacity (ca. 220 mAh/g). Since the first report in 2001, LiMBO₃ has rather slow progress in comparison to other polyanionic cathode systems based on PO₄, SO₄, and SiO₄. The current review gives a sneak peak to the progress on LiMBO₃ cathode systems in the last 15 years highlighting their salient features and impediments in cathode implementation. The synthesis and structural aspects of borate family are described along with the critical analysis of the electrochemical performance of borate family of insertion materials.