Novel synthesis of FePO4·2H2O nanoparticles as a precursor of LiFePO4/C cathode material for lithium ion batteries by microreaction technology

Abstract

In this paper, a new method based on microreaction technology has been developed to synthesize LiFePO4/C material. The physical and electrochemical properties of the FePO4·2H2O precursor and the final LiFePO4/C material synthesized by microreaction technology are compared with those by conventional precipitation method. Different means of detection, such as XRD, SEM, TEM, particle size detection, CV, EIS and cyclic tests are conducted. The results show that the LiFePO4/C material synthesized by microreaction technology possesses smaller and more uniform morphology with higher tap density, compared with the traditional one. Consequently, the cycling stability and rate performance of the LiFePO4/C material synthesized by microreaction technology have been significantly improved, and the discharge capacity of which reaches 162.7, 153.6, 142.7, 130.6 and 117.6 mAh g−1 at the rate of 0.1, 1, 2, 3 and 5 C, respectively. In view of excellent performance, this new simple synthesis method will be a promising application into the high throughput preparation process.