Synthesis and characterization of Limn2o4 based cathode materials for Lithium ion battery

Abstract

The main objective of the present work is to develop LiMn2O4 based cathode materials for lithium ion batteries with reduced capacity fading, by substituting metal ions through a simple and rapid method of synthesis, which yields powders of good chemical homogeneity. Solution combustion (SC) method of synthesis was adopted throughout the work for preparing cation substituted LiMn2O4 cathode materials, which is expected to reduce capacity fading by stabilizing the spinel structure. Moreover, co-substitution of cations is also attempted, to increase the electronic conductivity of cathode material, which is a very important property related to battery performance. Initially, LiMn2O4 was synthesized using the corresponding metal nitrates and urea by SC at 500 °C, which is further calcined at 800 °C to yield final product. Similar procedure was adopted for the synthesis of Zn substituted LiMn2O4, Ni substituted LiMn2O4, Ni and Zn co-substituted LiMn2O4, and Zn and Ag co-substituted LiMn2O4 cathode materials. Zn substitution has been proven to stabilize the spinel structure, whereas, substituting Ni is found by researchers to increase the energy density of the material. Therefore, various weight percentages of Ni and Zn cosubstituted LiMn2O4 has been tried, to synthesize a cathode material which provides the benefits of both Ni and Zn substitution. Moreover, Zn and Ag co-substituted LiMn2O4 has also been synthesized in an attempt to increase the electronic conductivity of the cathode material, while stabilizing the spinel structure. newline