Upadhyayula V Varadaraju

Herein, we have explored performance of layered LiNi1/3Co1/3Mn1/3O2 (NCM111) cathode material for Li ion battery applications, prepared by different preparation strategies namely co-precipitated mixed hydroxide and solid state high temperature approach combined with high-temperature calcination. The effect of crystal structure and morphology of the obtained materials were characterized by means of X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. X-ray analysis reveals that the observed lattice parameter ratio c/a is greater than 4.89 for materials with different approaches, which indicates the formation of hexagonal layered α-NaFeO2 structure. The electrochemical properties of the materials were thoroughly characterized by means of charge–discharge experiments and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The direct solid state synthesized NCM111 material exhibits a low retention and discharge capacity of 60 mAh g−1 at the end of 50 cycles with high irreversible capacity during cycling. The present studies have shown that the importance of material synthesis route and its sintering process, prepared at 900 °C for 8 h results low cation mixing between Li and metal ions layer in NCM111 lattice compared to other sintered samples, resulting in superior electrochemical performance. The reversible capacity of 175 mAh g−1 is noticed at C/10 rate within the voltage window of 2.5–4.4 V for 900 °C treated sample. Even at C/3 rate, a stable high reversible capacity of 145 mAh g−1 is obtained with high capacity retention of 95%. The Rietveld and EIS spectroscopic analysis conforms the existence stable layered structure and electrode, interface for NCM11 approached through co-precipitation.

The exchange of lithium for proton in VO(H2PO4)2 has been studied. Beside the continuous exchange from VO(H2PO4)2 to Li2H2VO(PO4)2, a new cathode material Li4VO(PO4)2 has been synthesized, whose structure is closely related to that of VO(H2PO4)2. The electrochemical evaluation of Li4VO(PO4)2 vs. Li shows that it undergoes reversible lithium deintercalation/intercalation at high voltage, ∼4.0 V with a reversible capacity of ∼70 mAh/g. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A new vanadium diphosphate, Li2VOP2O7, has been synthesized by ion exchange from Na2VOP2O7, using an eutectic mixture of {0.4LiOH·H2O-0.6LiNO3} at 200 °C. It crystallizes in space group P21/c, with the lattice parameters a = 7.4674(8) Å, b = 12.442(2) Å, c = 6.2105(7) Å and β = 97.79(1)°. The crystal structure of Li2VOP2O7, refined by powder X-ray diffraction data, shows that the structure of the parent Na-phase is retained but a prominent decrease in the layer spacing is observed. Li2VOP2O7 has been tested as a cathode material for Li-ion battery. One lithium is deintercalated by charging to 4.6 V, however, on discharge only about 0.5 Li is re-intercalated. © 2007 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.