Synthesis of FePO4·xH2O for fabricating submicrometer structured LiFePO4/C by a co-precipitation method

Amorphous hydrated iron (III) phosphate has been synthesized by a coordinate precipitation method from equimolecular Fe(NO3)3 and (NH4)2HPO4 solutions at an elevated temperature. Hydrated iron (III) phosphate samples and the corresponding LiFePO4/C products were characterized by XRD and SEM. The electrochemical behavior was studied by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The LiFePO4/C fabricated from as-synthesized FePO4 delivered discharge capacities of 162.5, 147.3, 133.0, 114.7, 97.2, 91.3 and 88.5 mAh g−1 at rates of 0.1C, 0.2C, 0.5C, 1C, 2C, 3C and 4C with satisfactory capacity retention, respectively.