Enhanced electrochemical properties of LiMnPO4/C composites by tailoring polydopamine-derived carbon coating

Dopamine (polydopamine) is an excellent and facile agent for achieving effective full carbon coating owing to its strong adhesive capability. Herein, polydopamine-derived carbon coating on LiMnPO4 has been reported for the first time. Detailed investigations indicate that full carbon coating with the suitable thickness can significantly enhance the electrochemical performance of LiMnPO4/C composite by balancing the electronic conduction and lithium-ion transportation. Benefiting from the thin full carbon coating with a relatively uniform thickness of 3-5 nm, the as-obtained LiMnPO4/C composite with 6.84 wt.% carbon exhibits a high reversible capacity of 118 mAh g−1 at 5 C and 106 mAh g−1 at 10 C, respectively, and a remarkable stable capacity retention of ∼91.5% after 100 cycles at 0.5 C. Moreover, attractive electrochemical properties can also be obtained for LiMnPO4/C composite with reduced carbon content of 3.41 wt.%. The above results are competitive among the low carbon coated LiMnPO4 based materials.