Full microwave synthesis of advanced Li-rich manganese based cathode material for lithium ion batteries

In technologically important Li-rich layered cathode materials, the synthesis time is a critical determinant to overcome the practical difficulties. Normal technology costs at least one day or even more to obtain final Li-rich cathode material. Full microwave synthesis is performed here to obtain final Li1.2Mn0.56Ni0.16Co0.08O2 within 60 min with high time-efficiency and power economization. The as-prepared Li-rich oxides keep the spherical hierarchical structure of the precursor. Compared to the same material obtained by traditional calcination, it exhibits well-formed layered structure with higher ordered ion arrangement. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) indicates that microwave assisted heating contributes to a more ordered and stable surface with desired Mn, Co, Ni element states and less impurity. Thus, the as-prepared material reveals remarkable electrochemical property with high discharge capacity of 159.3 mAh g−1 at high current density of 2000 mA g−1. And 88.6% specific capacity is remained after 300 cycles at such high current density. Furthermore, cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and galvanostatic intermittent titration technique (GITT) are carried out to overall investigate and estimate the material. It is concluded that such full microwave synthesis is really promising as one of the dominant way to obtain Li-rich layered cathode material for applications.