In the recent years, lithium-ion batteries have prevailed and dominated as the primary power sources for mobile electronic applications. Equally, their use in electric resources of transportation and other high-level applications is hindered to some certain extent. As a result, innovative fabrication of lithium-ion batteries based on best performing cathode materials should be developed as electrochemical performances of batteries depends largely on the electrode materials. Elemental doping and coating of cathode materials as a way of upgrading Li-ion batteries have gained interest and have modified most of the commonly used cathode materials. This has resulted in enhanced penetration of Li-ions, ionic mobility, electric conductivity and cyclability, with lesser capacity fading compared to traditional parent materials. The current paper reviews the role and effect of metal oxides as coatings for improvement of cathode materials in Li-ion batteries. For layered cathode materials, a clear evaluation of how metal oxide coatings sweep of metal ion dissolution, phase transitions and hydrofluoric acid attacks is detailed. Whereas the effective ways in which metal oxides suppress metal ion dissolution and capacity fading related to spinel cathode materials are explained. Lastly, challenges faced by olivine-type cathode materials, namely; low electronic conductivity and diffusion coefficient of Li⁺ ion, are discussed and recent findings on how metal oxide coatings could curb such limitations are outlined.

Lithium rich manganese oxides (LRMOs) for lithium ion battery cathode applications have generated worldwide interest due to the low cost of manganese owing to its high abundance, their high theoretical capacities as well as the low toxicity of the materials. Amongst the LMRO family, Li ₂ MnO ₃ (Li[Li _0.33 Mn _0.67 ]O ₂ ) once thought to be electrochemically inactive, has emerged as a superior candidate for high capacity cathode material application in electric vehicles and grid storage due to exceptional theoretical capacities which are as high as 459 mAh g ⁻¹ . However, this material suffers from low initial coulombic efficiencies, capacity fading during cycling and low rate capacities. Herein, we report on various advances that have been made in addressing the above-mentioned drawbacks by suppressing lattice oxygen loss and phase transformations which lead to the poor performance. We will review surface modifications on these materials and their implication in the improvements of LMROs. Finally, we will give an overview of what the future looks like for such materials.