Investigating the enhanced kinetics of LiNi0.08Mn1.92O4 cathode material by regulating calcination temperature for long life lithium-ion battery

Various LiNi0.08Mn1.92O4 cathode materials were prepared by a solution combustion method at 500 °C for 1 h combined with two-stage calcination at 600, 650, 700, and 750 °C for 3 h, respectively. Systematic characterization and test approaches were carried out to investigate the effect of calcination temperature on the crystal structure, morphology, electrochemical performance and kinetics properties of the as-obtained LiNi0.08Mn1.92O4 samples. As a result, all the LiNi0.08Mn1.92O4 samples show the intrinsic spinel phase with a good crystallinity. The particles size increases with the increased calcination temperature. Especially, the LiNi0.08Mn1.92O4 sample prepared at 700 °C (LNMO-700) has a great Li+ ion diffusion coefficient and a low apparent activation energy, resulting in an enhanced kinetics. Owing to these merits, the optimized LNMO-700 cathode material exhibits a high initial discharge capacity of 105.0 mAh g−1 and improved retention of 68.6% after 1000 cycles at 1 C, whilst delivers a good rate capability of 95.7 mAh g−1 at a high current rate of 5 C.