Self-template synthesis of Li1.13Ni0.30Mn0.57O2 anothorn spheres and nanorods as high-performance cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries

Commercial cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries require both excellent electrochemical and processing performance. Nanoscaled cathode materials with high surface area usually have low compacted density and low loading of active materials on the electrode because of high-content usage of conductive agent and binder, which is expected to be solved by incorporating one-dimensional (1D) particles into dense three-dimensional (3D) structure. In this work, a topochemical method is used to synthesize high-capacity Li-rich cathode material Li1.13Ni0.30Mn0.57O2 with controllable 3D and 1D hybrid structure containing nanothorn spheres and nanorods by using gamma-MnO2 and beta-MnO2 as templates. Structural and electrochemical lithium insertion/desertion properties are investigated. Experimental results show that Li1.13Ni0.30Mn0.57O2 with well-designed 3D structure exhibits superior electrochemical performance especially higher volumetric capacity than 1D material. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.