High Performance Nano Sponge Li1.2Mn0.54Ni0.13Co0.13O2 Cathode via Synthesizing Nano Plate Precursor for Lithium Ion Battery

In this work, we synthesized nano plate oxalate precursor via solvothermal method to obtain Nano Sponge Li1.2Mn0.54Ni0.13Co0.13O2 (NS-LMNCO) cathode material. During solvothemal process, ethanol and water solvents arrange oxalate nuclei to form plate-like shape. With increasing temperature at calcination step, the oxalate precursor is converted to NS-LMNCO by removing CO2. The structure, morphology and elemental composition of synthesized samples are investigated with X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and X-ray Photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), respectively. The thickness and length of nano plate are 60 nm and 2 μm, respectively. However, the diameter of particles made NS-LMNCO is 40 nm. The NS-LMNCO delivers discharge capacities of 207.6 mAh g-1 at 0.1 C. Furthermore, electrochemical data show that NS-LMNCO sample retain discharge capacities of 147.5 mAh g-1 (71.1% of the first discharge capacity) after 50 cycles at 0.1 C-rate. The results obtained in this work clearly confirmed that electrochemical properties of lithium ion cell e.g. specific capacity, cycle life and rate performance can be significantly controlled by properties of active materials, especially cathode particles, e.g. porosity, surface area and density related to morphology of active particles.