Improving the elevated-temperature behaviors of LiNi1/3Co1/3Mn1/3O2 by surface modification with Nano-La2O3

The layered LiNi1/3Co1/3Mn1/3O2 as a lithium insertion positive electrode material suffers from severe capacity fading, especially at a high temperature. In order to overcome this problem, nano-La2O3 is directly coated on the surface of layered LiNi1/3Co1/3Mn1/3O2 (LNCM@La2O3) to improve its electrochemical performance. Compared with the pristine one, all the surface modification samples own the better cycling stability than that of the pristine material. Among the surface-modified cathode materials, the 6 wt% surface-modified cathode (LNCM@6 wt % La2O3) has lesser capacity loss than the others. It shows superior performance with higher capacity (206.8 mAh·g−1) and significantly improved cycling stability (maintaining 93.94% of its initial discharge capacity after 100 cycles). In addition, LNCM@6 wt % La2O3 demonstrates dramatically enhanced reversibility and stability even at the elevated temperature due to the optimal nano-La2O3 layer which not only increases the electrical conductivity of the material, but also acts as a medium that prevents the material from degradation during cycling. Thus, we believe that such LNCM@La2O3 composite can be an economical and viable candidate cathode material for Li-ion batteries.