Ce&F multifunctional modification improves the electrochemical performance of LiCoO_(2)at 4.60 V

Lithium cobalt oxide(LiCoO_(2))is proverbially employed as cathode materials of lithium-ion batteries attributed to the high theoretical capacity,and currently,it is developing towards higher cut-off voltages in the pursuit of higher energy density.However,it suffers from serious structural degradation and surface side reactions,in particular,at the voltage above 4.60 V,leading to rapid decay of the battery life.Taking into account the desirable oxygen buffering property and the fast ion mobility characteristic of cerium oxide fluoride,in this work,we prepared Ce&F co-modified LiCoO_(2)by using the precursors of Ce(NO_(3))_(3)·6H_(2)O and NH_(4)F,and evaluated the electrochemical performance under voltages exceeding 4.60 V.The results indicated that the modified samples have multiphase heterostructure of surface CeO_(2-x)and unique Ce-O-F solid solution phase.At 3.0–4.60 V and 25℃,the preferred sample LCO-0.5Ce-0.3F has a high initial discharge specific capacity of 221.9 mA h g^(-1)at 0.1 C,with the retention of 80.3%and 89.6%after 300 cycles at 1 and 5 C,comparing with the pristine LCO(56.4%and 22.6%).And at 3.0–4.65 V,its retention is 64.0%after 300 cycles at 1 C,versus 8.5%of the pristine LCO.Through structural characterizations and DFT calculations,it suggests that Ce^(4+)&F^(-)co-doping suppresses the H3 to H1/3 irreversible phase transition,stabilizes the lattice structure,and reduces the redox activity of the lattice oxygen by modulating the Co 3d–O 2p energy band,consequently improving the electrochemical performance of LiCoO_(2)at high voltages.

Li_(2)TiO_(3) Dopant and Phosphate Coating Improve the Electrochemical Performance of LiCoO2 at 3.0-4.6 V

A sol-gel tandem with a solid-phase modification procedure was developed to synthesize Li_(2)TiO_(3)-doped LiCoO_(2) together with phosphate coatings(denoted as LCO-Ti/P),which possesses excellent high-voltage performance in the range of 3.0-4.6 V.The characterizations of X-ray diffraction,high-resolution transmission electron microscopy,and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy illustrated that the modified sample LCO-Ti/P had the dopant of monoclinic Li_(2)TiO_(3) and amorphous Li3PO4 coating layers.LCO-Ti/P has an initial discharge capacity of 211.6 mAh/g at 0.1 C and a retention of 85.7%after 100 cycles at 1 C and 25±1°C between 3.0 and 4.6 V.Nyquist plots reflect that the charge transfer resistance of LCO-Ti/P after 100 cycles at 1 C is much lower than that of the spent LCO,which benefits Li-ion diffusion.Density functional theory calculations disclose the superior lattice-matching property of major crystal planes for Li_(2)TiO_(3) and LiCoO_(2),the lower energy barriers for Li-ion diffusion in Li_(2)TiO_(3),and the suppressed oxygen release performance resulting from phosphate adsorption.This work provides useful guidance on the rational design of the high-voltage performance of modified LiCoO_(2) materials in terms of lattice-matching properties aside from the phosphate coating to reduce the energy barriers of Li-ion diffusion and enhance cycling stability.