One-step precipitation of nanometric LiMO2 powders (M = Co, Fe) in alcoholic media

We describe here a new synthesis route for the direct and controlled precipitation of monodispersed nanometric LiMO2 (M = Co, Fe) powders in alcoholic media tackling the difficulty to simultaneously hydrolyze lithium and transition metal ions in aqueous medium. Combining results from XRD, Raman, TEM, TGA analyses, we found that the alcohol nature as well as the absolute and relative Li+ and Mn+ concentrations are important parameters controlling the formation of such materials. These parameters can be reliably tuned and influence the phase purity, crystallite sizes and Li/M stoichiometry for both HT-“LiCoO2” and α-“LiFeO2” type materials. The optimization and rationalization of this synthetic route appear as a very promising tool to prepare well controlled/characterized oxides to further study the interrelationships between structural, chemical and reactivity issues as a function of the crystallite size, as suggested by some of the present results.