Manganese-Based Lithium-Ion Battery: Mn3O4 Anode Versus LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 Cathode

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are widely used in portable consumer electronics, clean energy storage, and electric vehicle applications. However, challenges exist for LIBs, including high costs, safety issues, limited Li resources, and manufacturing-related pollution. In this paper, a novel manganese-based lithium-ion battery with a LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4Mn3O4 structure is reported that is mainly composed of environmental friendly manganese compounds, where Mn3O4 and LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4 (LNMO) are adopted as the anode and cathode materials, respectively. The proposed structure improves battery safety and reduce costs compared with current battery technology, provides comparable energy density with that of traditional graphite-based batteries. First, the characteristics and the electrochemical performances of the Mn3O4 anode and the LNMO cathode are investigated separately against Li metal in half cell configurations, with promising performances being demonstrated by both electrodes. Then, a full cell structure with Mn3O4 against LNMO is constructed that provides an average discharge voltage of 3.5 V and an initial specific capacity of 86.2 mA.h.g(-1). More importantly, the electrochemical performance of the LNMOMn3O4 full cell and its possible decay mechanisms are discussed systemically; and efficient strategies are proposed to further improve both the electrochemical performance of Mn3O4 and the stability of LNMO.