Coupling effect of the conductivities of Li ions and electrons by introducing LLTO@C fibers in the LiNi0.8Co0.15Al0.05O2 cathode

To probe the coupling effect of the electron and Li ion conductivities in Ni-rich layered materials(LiNi0.8Co0.15Al0.05O2,NCA),lithium lanthanum titanate(LLTO)nanofiber and carbon-coated LLTO fiber(LLTO@C)materials were introduced to polyvinylidene difluoride in a cathode.The enhancement of the conductivity was indicated by the suppressed impedance and polarization.At 1 and 5 C,the cathodes with coupling conductive paths had a more stable cycling performance.The coupling mechanism was analyzed based on the chemical state and structure evolution of NCA after cycling for 200 cycles at 5 C.In the pristine cathode,the propagation of lattice damaged regions,which consist of high-density edge-dislocation walls,destroyed the bulk integrity of NCA.In addition,the formation of a rock-salt phase on the surface of NCA caused a capacity loss.In contrast,in the LLTO@C modified cathode,although the formation of dislocation-driven atomic lattice broken regions and cation mixing occurred,they were limited to a scale of several atoms,which retarded the generation of the rock-salt phase and resulted in a pre-eminent capacity retention.Only NiO phase“pitting”occurred.A mechanism based on the synergistic transport of Li ions and electrons was proposed.