Electrochemical synthesis: oxygen intercalation

The electrochemical intercalation of oxygen into oxide networks, observed for the first time in 1990, stimulated great interest in the field of solid state chemistry. Considered at first as a questionable process, many research groups now agree that the electrochemical reaction indeed leads to the insertion of oxygen species into the parent network. Potentiostatic as well as galvanostatic experiments carried out in alkaline solution have allowed chemists to prepare fully oxidized compounds such as SrMO3 perovskites (MFe, Co) or overoxidized Ln2MO4+δ materials (MNi, Cu), some of them exhibiting peculiar physical properties. In spite of the large size of the oxygen anions, much similarity is found between oxygen intercalation and cationic intercalation.