Electrochemical Properties of Layered LiMoO₂as Cathode for Li-Ion Batteries

Abstract

With the development of new energy vehicles, it is necessary to develope new fast charging cathode materials for lithium ion batteries. This paper reports a simple carbon thermal reduction routine to synthesize layered LiMoO2 cathode for Li-ion batteries. Impurity-free micro-crystalline powders were synthesized by one-step method with a thermal treatment at 800°C for 5 hrs under N2 atmosphere. The structural, morphological and electrochemical properties of LiMoO2 were characterized by using X-ray diffraction pattern (XRD), scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), charge/discharge cycling and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The diffraction results indicate that the prepared sample has a layered hexagonal structure related to α-NaFeO2. The secondary particles are in order of 2.0 μm length on average with homogeneous distribution. The initial discharge capacity of LiMoO2 is 110.9 mAh·g-1 at 0.1 C, and the capacity can still remain 92.8 mAh·g-1 after 100 cycles. The good cycling performance and high rate discharge performance are attributed to the smaller charge-transfer resistance revealed by EIS results.