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Surface modification with lithium-ion conductor Li3PO4 to enhance the electrochemical performance of lithium-rich layered Li1.2Ni0.2Mn0.6O2

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Abstract

Layered lithium-rich oxide materials are regarded as one of the most promising cathode materials. However, inferior cycling stability and poor rate performance hinder their practical application prospect. In this study, Li3PO4-coated Li1.2Ni0.2Mn0.6O2 cathode materials have been synthesized by sol–gel method together with a facile liquid-evaporation process. The results suggested that the Li3PO4 coating layer, which could not only facilitate the lithium-ion diffusion rate and accelerate the diffusion kinetics but also act as a protective layer to protect it from corrosion by HF and other side reactions. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations confirmed the essence effect on lithium-ion diffusion coefficient and electronic conductivity. After modifying with an appropriate amount of Li3PO4, the Li-rich layered oxides showed enhanced electrochemical performance. Especially, the capacity retention of 5 wt% Li3PO4-coated Li1.2Ni0.2Mn0.6O2 was significantly enhanced from 17.7% of the bare Li1.2Ni0.2Mn0.6O2 to 73.8%. In terms of rate capabilities, 5 wt% Li3PO4-coated Li1.2Ni0.2Mn0.6O2 retained capacities of 181.0, 165.9, 128.8, and 107.8 mAh g−1, while the bare Li1.2Ni0.2Mn0.6O2 were only 137.4, 109.3, 75.6, and 45.9 mAh g−1, respectively, at rates of 0.5 C, 1 C, 2 C, and 5 C. Our research findings show that coating with an appropriate amount of lithium-ion conductor material is one of the effective measures to obtain improved performance of Li-rich and Mn-rich layered oxide materials.

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Data Availability

The authors declare that all data supporting the findings of this study are available within the paper and its Supplementary Information files.

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Funding

This study was financially supported by the National Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52102111), Research and Innovation Initiatives of WHPU (No. 2023Y26 and No. 2023Y25), Nature Science Foundation of Hubei Province (No. 2021CFB218), the Key Research and Development Project of Hubei Province (No. 2020BBB068) and Nature Science Foundation of Hubei Province (No. 2020CFB400).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, Wuhan Polytechnic University, Wuhan, 430023, China

    Ya Sun, Xuke Zhang, Jialuo Cheng, Minghui Guo, Xiaofang Li, Chunlei Wang & Juntao Yan

  2. College of Chemical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, 211816, China

    Linbing Sun

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  1. Ya Sun
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Sun, Y., Zhang, X., Cheng, J. et al. Surface modification with lithium-ion conductor Li3PO4 to enhance the electrochemical performance of lithium-rich layered Li1.2Ni0.2Mn0.6O2. Ionics 29, 2141–2152 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11581-023-04959-3

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