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Effects of Al content on the electrochemical performance and thermal stability of Li(Ni0.9Co0.06Mn0.04)1−xAlxO2 cathode materials for Li-ion batteries

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Abstract

Ni-rich cathode materials, such as Li[Ni1−x−yCoxMny]O2 (NCM) and Li[Ni1−x−yCoxAly]O2 (NCA), are attracting increasing attention in the automobile industry owing to their high reversible capacities and high operating voltages (up to 3.6 V vs. Li/Li+). In this study, a simple dry doping method was employed to fabricate a quaternary Ni-rich cathode material Li(Ni0.9Co0.06Mn0.04)1−xAlxO2 (NCMA, 0 ≤ x ≤ 0.065), wherein inactive Al was doped to improve the electrochemical performance and thermal stability of the base material, NCM. Although Al decreased the capacity and initial efficiency of the material owing to its inactive nature, it enhanced the rate performance by increasing the spacing of the Li slabs as well as the structural stability to improve the cycling performance and thermal stability. The capacity retention of Li(Ni0.9Co0.06Mn0.04)0.95Al0.050O2 increased to 95.04% (3.0–4.3 V, 0.5 C, 25 ℃) and 94.21% (3.0–4.3 V, 0.5 C, 45 ℃) after 100 cycles.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Ningbo Science and Technology Innovation 2025 Program (2020Z042).

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Author notes

  1. Jianxiong Lin and Xinyu Lian contributed equally.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xian, 710049, China

    Jianxiong Lin & Liang Fang

  2. Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics, Yangming College, Ningbo University, Ningbo, 315211, China

    Xinyu Lian, Xin Wang & Xinkun Suo

  3. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Anhui University of Technology, Anhui, 243002, China

    Yangzhou Ma

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  1. Jianxiong Lin
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Contributions

Jianxiong Lin: methodology, formal analysis. Xinyu Lian: writing—original draft, data curation, software. Xin Wang: English revision. Yangzhou Ma: validation. Liang Fang: supervision. Xinkun Suo: conceptualization, methodology, writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to Xinkun Suo.

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Lin, J., Lian, X., Wang, X. et al. Effects of Al content on the electrochemical performance and thermal stability of Li(Ni0.9Co0.06Mn0.04)1−xAlxO2 cathode materials for Li-ion batteries. Ionics 29, 2153–2162 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11581-023-04929-9

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