User:ChemEnjoyer/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxides

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
(Briefly explain why you chose it, why it matters, and what your preliminary impression of it was.)

I worked on this specific cathode chemistry during my most recent co-op term and feel that I can evaluate it relatively well based off of my experience. It is important because lithium ion batteries are becoming more prevalent as the world transitions to greener energy sources, and understanding the chemistry behind these batteries will be valuable.

My initial impression of the article was that it was decent, if a little short; however, looking deeply into the article reveals a number of flaws.

Evaluate the article
(Compose a detailed evaluation of the article here, considering each of the key aspects listed above. Consider the guiding questions, and check out the examples of what a useful Wikipedia article evaluation looks like.)

I initially believed the lead section was okay, but I realized that it was only because I have a background with this chemistry. If I had no previous knowledge of what NMC cathodes were, I would be very confused while reading through most of the lead paragraph. The first sentence simply states exactly what one expects "lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxides" are, while providing no elaboration on what they are used for or why anyone should care about them. This would be no issue at all if the second sentence provided some more context, but it instead immediately moves into technical knowledge. The technical aspects themselves are not necessarily an issue, but they are problematic when there is no previous context to explain the topic. There is finally elaboration at the end of the opening paragraph, but it should have been stated before the technical terms were brought up. The qualifying statement near the end of this paragraph should also be replaced or removed. Other than these issues, the technical details are good and provided useful and concise knowledge on NMCs.

The content that is present is good. I particularly found that the history section provided a good summary of the chemistry, though there are likely developments since 2001 which could be added to the article. There is a noticeable lack of further technical knowledge, such as known synthesis routes or comparisons to other major Li-ion battery cathode chemistries.

The article's tone is almost entirely neutral and expository, which is very good. The one statement that is somewhat charged is the aforementioned qualifying statement in the lead paragraph ("NMCs are among the most important storage materials for lithium ions in lithium ion batteries."), though this seems to be more of a reflection of the current industry attitude rather than a personal opinion; the lightly charged nature of the statement also collapses when one realizes that there is only a single other modern cathode chemistry briefly mentioned in the article. A better way of writing this sentence is probably to say that NMCs are among the most researched or most discussed Li-ion storage materials in the current literature when compared to other chemistries.

Despite how short the article is, it has many sources and is very well researched. Many of the sources are articles in known peer-reviewed journals, and DOIs are available for most of them as well.

The structure of the article is very good, and easy to follow; the sections are also split up logically. There were no grammatical mistakes in the writing, and the wording is clear.

There are only images of vehicles which contain NMC cathodes which does not necessarily detract from the article, but also does not really add anything other than looking quite nice. Pictures that illustrate the layered structure of NMC would likely be more useful.

This article is part of the Chemistry Wikiproject and the talk page is empty. It has been rated as C-class and low-importance on the Wikiproject's quality scale.

The article currently has a good foundation with many solid references and mostly high quality content. It is just under-developed and needs more information on it. Some images and figures which provide more insight into the topic, as well as some links to other relevant pages such as other Li-ion battery cathode chemistries could enhance the page even further.