The adverse impacts of carbon-based energy resources on environment has caused an evolution in researches toward innovative technologies including electrical storage and transport systems. Sustainable production of cathodes is required to satisfy the ever-increasing demands for the Lithium-Ion batteries (LiBs) driven by electrical vehicle (EV) industries. The global expansion of LiB production capacity is expected to surge from nearly ۲۹۰ GWh in ۲۰۱۸ to about ۱۷۰۰ GWh in۲۰۲۸. However, the dependency of LiB cathode on Cobalt (Co) raises socioeconomic,sustainability, environmental and ethical issues. The Co price has also increased more than ۶۰,۰۰۰$in recent years. Therefore, the production of Cobalt-free (Co-free) cathodes may be considered asa key. The alternative
Co-free cathodes including lithium iron phosphate (LFP), lithium manganese oxide (LMO), polyanion, nickel-rich layered oxides, spinel lithium nickel manganese oxide(LMNO), and lithium nickel iron aluminum (NFA) cathodes have been then proposed. In the current study, prospects and challenges of the mentioned cathodes have been briefly investigated. LFP suffers from poor electrical conductivity under low-temperature and limited specific energydensity which makes improvements at material-level very challenging. Despite having beendeveloped for more than ۷۰ years, LMO is limited by its large volumetric charge during cycling.On the other hand, polyanion-type have low specific energy densities and difficulties in synthesis procedure. Furthermore, Ni-rich layered cathodes mainly struggle with capacity fade and many efforts have been made to overcome this challenge in recent years. Despite having an acceptable bulk stability, spinel-type
LMNO cathodes have limitations at the interface.
NFA compositionsyield specific capacities of about ۲۰۰mAh/g and demonstrate a reasonable rate capability. Out ofthe mentioned candidates, spinel-type
LMNO and
NFA cathodes are promising candidates and much research have been done to overcome their limitations. NFA, specifically, shows excellentresults despite being in early stages of development. The aim of current study is to highlight the advantages and disadvantages of each Co-free cathode in order to better understand their challenges and opportunities in order to their industrialization.