Undoubtedly, the lithium-ion battery (LIBs) is one of the most successful inventions of modern electrochemistry. Nevertheless, with the present specifications LIBs are incapable of meeting the emerging needs of mankind. The crucial involvement of LIBs in the prospective society, ranging from establishing synergism between renewable sources of energy and dispatchable supply of electricity, to meet the range anxiety of the rapidly growing electric vehicle market challenges the scientific community to achieve advanced next-generation LIBs with desirable energy, stability and longevity. Consequently, in recent years there is an increased interest in developing high-energy, high-voltage cathode materials that can deliver a capacity >200 mAhg^-1 while operating at higher voltages, thereby providing a power density of ~500 Whkg^-1. Nevertheless, these next-generation cathode materials like Li-rich/Ni rich NCM, LNMO etc. delivers these promising numbers only for few cycles after which they suffer from severe capacity fading, voltage decay, poor coulombic efficiency attributed to the associated structural deformation, cathode/electrolyte interfacial instability and irreversible degradation of electrolyte solution at higher charging potentials (> 4.5 V).

This presentation will be focused on introducing the utility of atomic layer deposition in unconventional ways to engineer the interfacial chemistry of the active material particles in order to surpass the degradation mechanistic. Reviewing the recent experimental results, the function of a protection layer commonly known as “artificial solid electrolyte interface (ASEI)”, in enhancing the battery performance will be unravelled to demonstrate the efficacy of the surface protection strategies towards mitigating the battery degradation.