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Research Article

Surface spinel reconstruction to suppress detrimental phase transition for stable LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 cathodes

Qingmeng Gan1,2, Ning Qin1,3, Zhiqiang Li1, Shuai Gu1,3, Kemeng Liao1, Kaili Zhang3, Li Lu2, Zhenghe Xu1, Zhouguang Lu1()
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Interfacial Science and Engineering of Materials, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, 117575, Singapore
Department of Mechanical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, 83 Tat Chee Avenue, Hong Kong 999077, China
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Facile plasma treating has been employed to produce oxygen vacancies that will readily transform into a homogeneous spinel layer (~ 6 nm) on the LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 (NCM811) surface after the initial lithiation/delithiation procedure. The diffusion of Li ions remains fast and detrimental phase transition from H2 to H3 is suppressed by the spinel layer.

Abstract

Nickel-rich layered oxides are attractive cathode for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) because of the high energy density and low cost. The critical problem is capacity fading caused by the highly reactive metastable phases under voltages of higher than 4.15 V. Herein, we find that facile Ar/H2 plasma treating could produce oxygen vacancies that will readily transform into homogeneous spinel layer (~ 6 nm) on the LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 (NCM811) surface after a few cycles of lithiation/delithiation procedure. Owing to the structural matching between spinel and layered structure, the diffusion of Li ions could remain fast upon cycling. Besides, the spinel layer is electrochemically inert, which guarantees surface stabilization and inhibits the detrimental phase transition from H2 to H3 at high voltages. Under the protection of the homogeneous spinel layer, the NCM811 electrode shows superior capacity retention of 91.2% after 200 cycles at the current density of 100 mA·g−1. This work proposes a novel strategy of surface reconstruction to stabilize nickel-rich layered oxide materials for LIBs.

Keywords

lithium-ion batteriesnickel-rich cathodesurface spinel reconstructionphase transitionsuperior stability

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Nano Research
Volume 16 Issue 1,
January 2023
Pages 513-520
DOI: 10.1007/s12274-022-4754-z
Cite this article:
Gan Q, Qin N, Li Z, et al. Surface spinel reconstruction to suppress detrimental phase transition for stable LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 cathodes. Nano Research, 2023, 16(1): 513-520. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4754-z
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