Research (Jan 2019)

Facilitating Lithium-Ion Diffusion in Layered Cathode Materials by Introducing Li+/Ni2+ Antisite Defects for High-Rate Li-Ion Batteries

  • Zhongfeng Tang,
  • Sen Wang,
  • Jiaying Liao,
  • Shuo Wang,
  • Xiaodong He,
  • Bicai Pan,
  • Haiyan He,
  • Chunhua Chen

DOI
https://doi.org/10.34133/2019/2198906
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 2019

Abstract

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Li+/Ni2+ antisite defects mainly resulting from their similar ionic radii in the layered nickel-rich cathode materials belong to one of cation disordering scenarios. They are commonly considered harmful to the electrochemical properties, so a minimum degree of cation disordering is usually desired. However, this study indicates that LiNi0.8Co0.15Al0.05O2 as the key material for Tesla batteries possesses the highest rate capability when there is a minor degree (2.3%) of Li+/Ni2+ antisite defects existing in its layered structure. By combining a theoretical calculation, the improvement mechanism is attributed to two effects to decrease the activation barrier for lithium migration: (1) the anchoring of a low fraction of high-valence Ni2+ ions in the Li slab pushes uphill the nearest Li+ ions and (2) the same fraction of low-valence Li+ ions in the Ni slab weakens the repulsive interaction to the Li+ ions at the saddle point.