An ingenious design of lamellar Li1.2Mn0.54Ni0.13Co0.13O2 hollow nanosphere cathode for advanced lithium-ion batteries

Abstract

Although very appealing in developing hollow structured lithium-rich layered transition-metal oxides as cathodes for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), a great challenge lies in controlling the growth of transition metal elements with desired molar ratios while maintaining intact hollow structures during synthesis. Herein, we propose a scalable strategy to successfully synthesize novel lamellar Li1.2Mn0.54Ni0.13Co0.13O2 hollow (L-LMOH) nanosphere cathode for advanced lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). It is proved that the employment of sulfonated polystyrene (SPS) gel nanospheres as the template plays a key role in the formation of flower-like SPS@ Ni-Co-Mn-precursor nanospheres with desired molar ratios, and a subsequently delicate control in the heating rate leads to the intact L-LMOH nanospheres. It is demonstrated that the use of L-LMOH nanosphere cathode not only delivers outstanding reversible discharge capacities of 281.7mAhg−1 at a current density of 20mAg−1 and 136.6mAhg−1 at 2000mAg−1, but also possess superior cycling stability with a capacity reservation of 80% at 2000mAg−1 after 200 continuous cycles. It is well analyzed that the ingenious design of both unique lamella and hollow architectures synergistically benefits the significantly enhanced rate capability and cycling stability.