Lithiation: Advancing Material Synthesis and Structural Engineering for Emerging Applications

Lithiation, a process of inserting lithium ions into a host material, is revolutionizing nanomaterials synthesis and structural engineering as well as enhancing their performance across emerging applications, particularly valuable for large-scale synthesis of high-quality low-dimensional nanomaterials. Through a systematic investigation of the synthetic strategies and structural changes induced by lithiation, this review aims to offer a comprehensive understanding of the development, potential, and challenges associated with this promising approach. First, the basic principles of lithiation/delithiation processes will be introduced. Then, the recent advancements in the lithiation-induced structure changes of nanomaterials, such as morphology tuning, phase transition, defect generation, etc., will be stressed, emphasizing the importance of lithiation in structural modulation of nanomaterials. With the tunable structures induced by the lithiation, the properties and performance in electrochemical, photochemical, electronic devices, bioapplications, etc. will be discussed, followed by outlining the current challenges and perspectives in this research area.