Nitrogen-doped carbon layer of LiFePO4 improves the electrochemical performance for lithium ion batteries

In recent years, LiFePO4 is considered as an excellent cathode material for lithium-ion batteries. However, the low conductivity is a major disadvantage for this material. The nitrogen-doped carbon coated on the LiFePO4 is an effective strategy to solve this drawback. Herein, we report a creative and facile method for fabricating nitrogen-doped carbon-coated LiFePO4 (LFP/C-N) with sucrose and tripolycyanamide as carbon and nitrogen sources, respectively. The LiFePO4 nitrogen-doped carbon layer with a "core-shell" conductive network is expected to significantly facilitate the migration of electrons and thus enhance the electrochemical performances. As expected, the LFP coating with 1.25 wt% N decorating (LFP/C-N-1.25) exhibits a high specific capacities of 149.12 mAh g(-1) at 1 C, better rate performance of 50.64 mAh g(-1) at 10 C and favorable lithium ion diffusion coefficient of 2.15 x 10-12 cm2 s(-1). Therefore, we suggest that such novel LiFePO4 material is a potential cathode material for lithiumion batteries.