Electrodeposition of Manganese-Based Cathode Materials for Lithium-Ion Batteries

Abstract

To reduce the cost of electrode fabrication and provide a pathway for facile recycling of battery active materials, electrochemical deposition and lithiation of manganese (Mn) oxide cathodes have been proposed in the literature. However, without sufficient physicochemical characterization, many works have postulated that the active lithium manganese oxide (LMO) phase is created from crystalline MnO2 or Mn3O4. This work shows that neither of those phases nor other well-known stoichiometric crystalline phases (i.e., MnO and Mn2O3), lead to the formation of LMO. This work confirms the specific active surface features obtained by the potentiostatic deposition of Mn oxide, their chemical lithiation, and heat treatment. The resulting LMO electrodes were incorporated into coin cells, cycled—achieving a capacity over 250 mAh g−1—and post-characterized.