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Investigation of various layered lithium ion battery cathode materials by plasma- and X-ray-based element analytical techniques

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Abstract

In this work, the transition metal dissolution (TMD) from the respective ternary layered LiMO2 (M = Mn, Co, Ni, Al) cathode active material was investigated as well as the lithiation degrees of the cathodes after charge/discharge cyclic aging. Furthermore, increased nickel contents in LiNixCoyMnzO2-based (NCM) cathode materials were studied, to elucidate their influence on capacity fading and TMD. It was found, that the TMD from nickel-rich cathode materials, e.g., LiNi0.6Co0.2Mn0.2O2 or LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2, did not differ significantly from the TMD from the stoichiometric LiNi1/3Co1/3Mn1/3O2. In detail, the TMD from the cathode did not exceed a maximum of 0.2 wt% and was uniformly distributed on all analyzed cell parts (separator, anode, and electrolyte) using total reflection X-ray fluorescence. Moreover, the investigated electrolyte solutions showed that increased Ni contents come with more nickel dissolution of the respective material. Additionally, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy analysis on the respective charge/discharge cyclic-aged cathode active materials revealed lithium losses of 20% after 50 cycles. However, only a minimum amount of capacity loss (= 1.5 mAh g−1) can be attributed to active material loss.

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Funding

The authors wish to thank the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for funding this work in the project “Elektrolytlabor - 4E” (03X4632).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MEET Battery Research Center, Institute of Physical Chemistry, University of Münster, Corrensstraße 46, 48149, Münster, Germany

    Marco Evertz, Martin Winter & Sascha Nowak

  2. Helmholtz-Institute Münster, IEK-12, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Corrensstrasse 46, 48149, Münster, Germany

    Johannes Kasnatscheew & Martin Winter

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  1. Marco Evertz
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Correspondence to Sascha Nowak.

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Evertz, M., Kasnatscheew, J., Winter, M. et al. Investigation of various layered lithium ion battery cathode materials by plasma- and X-ray-based element analytical techniques. Anal Bioanal Chem 411, 277–285 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-018-1441-8

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