The discovery of anion redox activity is promising for boosting the capacity of lithium ion battery (LIB) cathodes. However, fundamental understanding of the mechanisms that trigger the anionic redox is still lacking. Here, using hybrid density functional study combined with experimental soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy (sXAS) measurements, we unambiguously proved that Li_{(2- x)}FeSiO₄ performs sequent cationic and anionic redox activity through delithiation. Specifically, Fe²⁺ is oxidized to Fe³⁺ during the first Li ion extraction per formula unit (f.u.), while the second Li ion extraction triggered the oxygen redox exclusively. Cationic and anionic redox result in electron and hole polaron states, respectively, explaining the poor conductivity of Li_{(2- x)}FeSiO₄ noted by previous experiments. In contrast, other cathode materials in this family exhibit diversity of the redox process. Li₂MnSiO₄ shows double cationic redox (Mn²⁺-Mn⁴⁺) during the whole delithiation, while Li₂CoSiO₄ shows simultaneous cationic and anionic redox. The present finding not only provides new insights into the oxygen redox activity in polyanionic compounds for rechargeable batteries but also sheds light on the future design of high-capacity rechargeable batteries.

Precise tuning of chemical reactions with predictable and controllable manners, an ultimate goal chemists desire to achieve, is valuable in the scientific community. This tunability is necessary to understand and regulate chemical transformations at both macroscopic and single-molecule levels to meet demands in potential application scenarios. Herein, we realise accurate tuning of a single-molecule Mizoroki-Heck reaction via applying gate voltages as well as complete deciphering of its detailed intrinsic mechanism by employing an in-situ electrical single-molecule detection, which possesses the capability of single-event tracking. The Mizoroki-Heck reaction can be regulated in different dimensions with a constant catalyst molecule, including the molecular orbital gating of Pd(0) catalyst, the on/off switching of the Mizoroki-Heck reaction, the promotion of its turnover frequency, and the regulation of each elementary reaction within the Mizoroki-Heck catalytic cycle. These results extend the tuning scope of chemical reactions from the macroscopic view to the single-molecule approach, inspiring new insights into designing different strategies or devices to unveil reaction mechanisms and discover novel phenomena.

KSSOLV (Kohn-Sham Solver) is a MATLAB toolbox for performing Kohn-Sham density functional theory (DFT) calculations with a plane-wave basis set. KSSOLV 2.0 preserves the design features of the original KSSOLV software to allow users and developers to easily set up a problem and perform ground-state calculations as well as to prototype and test new algorithms. Furthermore, it includes new functionalities such as new iterative diagonalization algorithms, k-point sampling for electron band structures, geometry optimization and advanced algorithms for performing DFT calculations with local, semi-local, and hybrid exchange-correlation functionals. It can be used to study the electronic structures of both molecules and solids. We describe these new capabilities in this work through a few use cases. We also demonstrate the numerical accuracy and computational efficiency of KSSOLV on a variety of examples. Program summary: Program title: Kohn-Sham Solver 2.0 (KSSOLV 2.0) CPC Library link to program files: https://doi.org/10.17632/pp8vgvfcv4.1 Developer's repository link: https://bitbucket.org/berkeleylab/kssolv2.0/src/release/ Licensing provisions: BSD 3-clause Programming language:: MATLAB Nature of problem: KSSOLV2.0 is used to perform Kohn-Sham density functional theory based electronic structure calculations to study chemical and material properties of molecules and solids. The key problem to be solved is a constrained energy minimization problem, which can also be formulated as a nonlinear eigenvalue problem. Solution method: The KSSOLV 2.0 implements both the self-consistent field (SCF) iteration with a variety of acceleration strategies and a direct constrained minimization algorithms. It is written completely in MATLAB and uses MATLAB's object oriented programming features to make it easy to use and modify.