Effect of copper impurity in ammonia leachate on the structure and electrochemical properties of LiNi0.6Co0.2Mn0.2O2 cathode material

Abstract

The ammonia leaching method can efficiently recover the spent Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), and the reuse of ammonia leachate is a difficult problem. In this study, a method of directly preparing LIBs ternary cathode materials by ammonia leachate using the co-precipitation method is proposed for the first time. The results show that the NCM-0 material prepared by ammonia leachate showed the first charge specific capacity of 208.187 mA·h·g−1 at 0.1C. The effect of Cu impurity content in ammonia leachate on the ternary cathode materials is explored. The scanning electron micrometer (SEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and electrochemical properties analysis of the cathode materials with different Cu impurity content show that an appropriate amount of Cu2+ doping in the ammonia leachate will reduce the Li+/Ni2+ cation mixing and stabilize the layered structure of the materials, and form stoma that is conducive to the transfer of charge and reduce the charge transfer resistance. In this research, the ammonia leachate is successfully prepared to ternary cathode materials, and the effect of Cu2+ doping in the ammonia leachate is explored.