One-Pot Synthesis of Lithium-Rich Cathode Material with Hierarchical Morphology

Abstract

Lithium-rich transition metal oxides, Li_1+xTM_1-xO₂ (TM, transition metal), have attracted much attention as potential candidate cathode materials for next generation lithium ion batteries because their high theoretical capacity. Here we present the synthesis of Li[Li_0.2Ni_0.2Mn_0.6]O₂ using a facile one-pot resorcinol-formaldehyde method. Structural characterization indicates that the material adopts a hierarchical porous morphology consisting of uniformly distributed small pores and disordered large pore structures. The material exhibits excellent electrochemical cycling stability and a good retention of capacity at high rates. The material has been shown to be both advantageous in terms of gravimetric and volumetric capacities over state of the art commercial cathode materials.