In situ growth of coiled carbon nanotubes on LiFePO4 as high performance lithium storage material

•In situ growth of CNTs on LiFePO4 is prepared by hydrolysis of acetylene.•The existence of P element in catalysts results in the formation of coiled CNTs.•Crosslinked CNTs provide electronic conductive pathways.•LiFePO4@CNTs shows a reversible capacity of 108.0 mA h g−1 at 10 C.

In this paper, LiFePO4@CNTs is fabricated by in situ growth of CNTs on the surface of LiFePO4 particles. The use of Ni–P alloy as catalyst results in the formation of coiled CNTs. The crosslinked CNTs provide good electronic conductive pathways interconnecting LiFePO4 particles. By using as cathode material for lithium ion battery, LiFePO4@CNTs shows higher electronic conductivity and charge transfer rate than those of the pristine LiFePO4 before coating. As a result, LiFePO4@CNTs displays outstanding lithium storage capacity and rate property. Electrochemical results reveal that LiFePO4@CNTs can deliver the reversible capacities of 161.3 mA h g−1 at 0.2 C and 108.0 mA h g−1 at 10 C. For comparison, bare LiFePO4 only reveals reversible capacities of 144.1 mA h g−1 at 0.2 C and 90.9 mA h g−1 at 10 C.

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