One-Pot Hydrothermal Synthesis of LiMn2O4 Cathode Material with Excellent High-Rate and Cycling Properties

Abstract

The spinel LiMn2O4 was prepared by a one-step hydrothermal method using acetone as the reductant under different hydrothermal temperatures. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy analysis indicated that optimal LiMn2O4 particles (LMO-120) were synthesized at the temperature of 120°C and the particles were well distributed and about 410 nm in size. Electrochemical performance showed that the as-prepared LiMn2O4 particles exhibited a higher initial discharge capacity than commercial LiMn2O4 (131.5 mAh g−1 versus 115.6 mAh g−1 at 0.2 C). An excellent discharge capacity retention rate of 94.07% was observed after 60 charge–discharge cycles. On the other hand, when cycled at the high rate of 1 C, the optimal LiMn2O4 in this work showed a high discharge capacity of 107.5 mAh g−1 in contrast to only 92.3 mAh g−1 of the commercial LiMn2O4. These results indicate that LMO-120 showed excellent electrochemical performance, especially the prolonged cycling life and high-rate performance, which suggested that this spinel LiMn2O4 has promise for practical application as a high-rate cathode material for lithium ion batteries.