Improving thermal and electrochemical performances of LiCoO2 cathode at high cut-off charge potentials by MF3 (M=Ce, Al) coating

• Fluoride metal is successfully coated on the surface of LiCoO2.
• Easy and scalable method is adopted for the synthesis of coated-LiCoO2.
• Appropriate amount of AlF3 or CeF3 is beneficial to reduce cation disorder.
• The electrochemical performances of coated LiCoO2 is significantly enhanced at higher potential (cycling efficiency and reversible capacity).
• The coated cathode exhibits excellent thermal stability highlighted by calorimetric technique.

Surface coating of LiCoO2 remained one of the efficient methods to enhance its electrochemical and thermal performances, especially at high cut-off potential. In this work, MF3 (M = Ce, Al) coated LiCoO2 was synthesized via co-precipitation method followed by a solid state reaction at 400 °C. The morphology and structure of the modified cathode material were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results show that the fluoride compound MF3 is successfully coated on the surface of LiCoO2 cathode particles with an average layer thickness about 12 nm and 40 nm for AlF3 and CeF3, respectively.The electrochemical tests show that the AlF3-coating layer significantly enhances the cycling performance of LiCoO2 cathode material, even at high cut-off potential. While the bare LiCoO2 cathode displays fast fading at 4.6 V vs. Li+/Li cutoff potential, the surface-modified electrode exhibits the great capacity of 160 mAh g−1 with excellent capacity retention on several cycles.We concluded that the electrochemical and the thermal enhancement at high potential are ascribed to the presence of MF3 coating layer which prevent the side reaction during the charge discharge process, alleviate the attack by the acidic electrolyte and reduce the damage of electrode structure.

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