Novel Li(Ni1/3Co1/3Mn1/3)O2 cathode morphologies for high power Li-ion batteries

In this paper, we report unique Li(Ni1/3Co1/3Mn1/3)O2 (NCM) materials produced using aerosol based liquid to solid conversion in different reactor configurations and using different atomization methods jointly termed Reactive Spray Technology (RST). A series of experiments was performed at different RST synthesis conditions suitable for large scale manufacturing to produce NCM powders with particle size ranging from 1 to ∼10 μm, varying degree of particle porosity and excellent compositional purity. The electrochemical testing in Li-ion cells indicates that NCM materials made via RST have high initial discharge capacity and good first cycle efficiency. NCM materials with small particle size and substantial intra-particle porosity show improved power rate performance at high discharge rates compared to larger particle size NCM. This was attributed to shorter diffusion length in the solid phase, increased electrochemically active surface area and high active phase accessibility due to the combined effect of smaller particle size and internal porosity. Specific capacity of small-particle NCM made by RST method was 167 mAh g−1 at 0.2 C and 137 mAh g−1 at 10 C, which compares favorably to 160 mAh g−1 at 0.2 C and 97 mAh g−1 at 10 C for NCM made by co-precipitation method having 10 μm average particle diameter.