Synthesis and Electrochemical Behaviour of Lithium Manganese Vanadates

Abstract

Lithium manganese vanadates are synthesized using the sol-gel method. The sol-gel method is a better synthesis method compared to that of the solid state reaction method and usually yields purer and more uniform sized particles. It also uses lower sintering temperatures and shorter time. This will be a savings in terms of costs of the material as heating requires a lot of electrical energy. Precursor materials acquired are subjected to thermal studies and a suitable sintering temperature is chosen in order to achieve pure, single phase compounds. As is well known it is not easy to get pure single phase final products for materials containing vanadium and manganese. From X-Ray diffraction (XRD), the results showed multi phase spinel lithium manganese vanadates. Battery fabrication is done using a composite cathode and a half cell is assembled in an argon filled glove box. Cell testing is done using a constant current charge-discharge procedure. The results show reasonable charge-discharge behaviour but the capacity is a little less than that for LiMn2O4.