Understanding atomic scale phenomena within the surface layer of a long-term cycled 5V spinel electrode

Daniel R. Vissers*, Dieter Isheim, Chun Zhan, Zonghai Chen, Jun Lu, Khalil Amine

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

Lithium-ion batteries utilizing 5V spinel material, LixMn1.5Ni0.5O4 have received considerable interest in recent years for their ability to deliver high energy and power densities. In this paper, we report an atomic scale analysis of the surface layer of a core-shell 5V spinel structure where a small amount of the manganese lattice sites have been substituted with cobalt in the shell to reach a stoichiometry of LixMn1.18Ni0.55Co0.27O4. Our analyses include electrochemical analysis, atom probe tomography (APT) analysis, kinetic analysis of the interfacial reactions, and high resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) analysis. The APT analysis is performed on the material before and after long-term cycling at room temperature to provide insights into the atomic scale phenomena within the surface layer of the electrode material. Our APT data reveals a 25-30 nano-meter (nm) region which forms after cycling. From our analyses, we believe that the outer few nanometers of this region stabilizes the 5V spinel within the chemical environment of the lithium-ion cell such that its structure is not compromised and thereby enables this material to cycle without significant capacity fading.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)297-306
Number of pages10
JournalNano Energy
Volume19
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2016

Keywords

  • 5V spinel
  • Atom probe tomography
  • Scanning transmission electron microscopy

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
  • Materials Science(all)
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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