Electrochemistry Communications (Aug 2019)

A high-performance solid-state synthesized LiVOPO4 for lithium-ion batteries

  • Yong Shi,
  • Hui Zhou,
  • Sylvia Britto,
  • Ieuan D. Seymour,
  • Kamila M. Wiaderek,
  • Fredrick Omenya,
  • Natasha A. Chernova,
  • Karena W. Chapman,
  • Clare P. Grey,
  • M. Stanley Whittingham

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 105

Abstract

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ε-LiVOPO4, a multi-electron cathode material for Li-ion batteries, suffers from structural disorder upon nanosizing by high-energy ball-milling, which impedes kinetics and promotes undesirable interfacial side reactions. This work presents a feasible way to decrease the disorder in the ball-milled composite of ε-LiVOPO4/C by post-annealing at 450 °C in an Ar atmosphere, with no reduction reaction caused by carbon and no particle growth. The post-annealed material shows recovered voltage plateaus, enhanced kinetics of Li diffusivity, and suppressed interfacial reactions. As a result, a high-performance solid-state synthesized ε-LiVOPO4 can be obtained, delivering a capacity of 270 mAh g−1 at C/5 with less than 4% degradation upon 100 cycles. Keywords: Li-ion battery, Cathode, Annealing, Structural disorder