Ultrathin carbon nanopainting of LiFePO4 by oxidative surface polymerization of dopamine

• A facile coating method based on redox chemistry of Fe3+ and dopamine.
• Ultrathin, and uniform carbon coating of LiFePO4.
• Excellent electrochemical performance for reversible Li+ storage (143 mAh g−1 at current density of 1700 mA g−1).

The common strategy to address the low electronic conductivity of LiFePO4 is to downsize LiFePO4 and to coat the nanocrystal with conductive carbon film. The major issues with existing carbon coating techniques are thickness and quality control. This paper reports a facile carbon coating method which can provide ultrathin, uniform and fully encapsulating carbon coating on LiFePO4. This coating method capitalizes on the redox chemistry of surface Fe3+ on solvothermally synthesized LiFePO4 nanocrystal, to deposit uniform thin films of polydopamine films. The polymer film is easily carbonized into ultrathin carbon film. The carbon coated LiFePO4 exhibits very high rate performance (143 mAh g−1 at current density of 1700 mA g−1) with excellent capacity retention.

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