Preliminary Study of LiCoPO4 cathode material synthesis for LiCoPO4/Graphite Cell

Abstract

<p>Nowadays, the race towards a high-performance Li-ion batteries discovery for energy storage has become an interesting technological challenge. New or improved Li-ion battery cathodes have been developed relentlessly in this decade. LiCoPO<sub>4</sub> (LCP) is a cathode material that allow a battery to operate at high voltage which resulted a high energy density battery. The presence of strong P-O bond adds a thermal stability feature to LIB cells. In this study, a LiCoPO<sub>4</sub> material were prepared by precipitation of Co<sub>3</sub>(PO<sub>4</sub>)<sub>2</sub> (CP) followed by high temperature Li insertion. H­<sub>3</sub>PO<sub>4</sub> were used as the phosphate source. The crystallization or precipitation of CP can only be achieved under mild pH condition, which can be controlled using sodium hydroxide. XRD, SEM and FTIR analysis were used to characterize the final product. The as-obtained LCP were applied as cathode material while graphite was used as the counter anode. The cell can deliver a charge-discharge capacity at a voltage of 2.0-4.95 V. This preliminary can be a groundwork toward the commercialization of LCP based Li-ion batteries for high duty application.</p>