Mechanochemical synthesis of LiNiO2

The mechanochemical process has been used to synthesize precursors and evaluate their efficacy in generating the layered structure of LiNiO2 at lower heat treatment temperatures. A comprehensive study of the as-milled precursor has been conducted using simultaneous TG/DTA. It is observed that the milling process is efficient in generating a disordered LiNiO2 using Li2O2 and NiO as the starting materials. The transformation of the disordered LiNiO2 to the ordered form of LiNiO2 however requires a minimum temperature of 700 °C. This observation suggests that the formation temperature of well-ordered LiNiO2 (∼8% disorder) is limited not only by the chemical reaction kinetics of the starting materials but also the kinetics of ordering of Li and Ni in LiNiO2.