LiCoO2 Cathode Material Prepared through Two Step Sintering Process

Abstract

LiCoO<sub>2</sub> cathode material has been continuously applied in commercial LIBs cells. It has high gravimetric and volumetric density. In this research, an economical approach to obtain LiCoO<sub>2</sub> is proposed. Pure cobalt oxide (Co<sub>3</sub>O<sub>4</sub>) precursor was obtained via atmospheric precipitation of cobalt sulfate and thermal decomposition of the as-obtained hydroxide precursor. The next heat treatment was performed to obtain LiCoO<sub>2</sub> powder. To investigate the characteristic of the precursor and the final product, XRD, FTIR, and SEM analysis were conducted. The final product has hexagonal structure and quasi spherical morphology. The size of the particle is in micron. The charge-discharge analysis of LiCoO<sub>2</sub> was conducted in LiCoO<sub>2</sub>/Graphite system where the initial capacity of LiCoO<sub>2</sub> is 120 mAh/g at the current density of 0.1 C (20 mA/g). Overall, this method can be used for large scale LiCoO­<sub>2</sub> cell production.