Study Insight into the Single Crystal Structure of NMC811 As the Next-Generation Cathode in 18650 Lithium-Ion Batteries

Abstract

Among the various types of metal oxide cathode materials, the nickel-rich layered materials as Polycrystalline Lithium nickel-cobalt-manganese-cobalt oxide (denoted as poly-NMC ) reveal the promising potential to be the next-generation cathode of lithium-ion batteries due to its high specific capacity and energy. However, poly-NMC has not been achieved commercialization owing to the structural instability during the discharging-charging process, caused by active material dissolution and intergranular cracking. A single crystal NMC (denoted as SC-NMC) could replace the poly-NMC to alleviate the aforementioned issues since it can provide the same practical capacity but superior in cyclability. In this work, we investigate insight into the fundamental of SC-NMC, comparing to the poly-NMC with regard to unit cell parameter changes, transition metal dissolution, SEI/CEI formation at difference voltage windows, and phase transition of these materials. This work shed light on the use of SC-NMC in 18650 cylindrical cell configurations. Figure 1