Oxalate-assisted solvothermal synthesis of octahedral LiMn1.5Ni0.5O4 particles for lithium-ion batteries

Abstract Submicron octahedral LiMn1.5Ni0.5O4 particles were easily prepared by solvothermal synthesis method. The effects of synthesis conditions including precursors' concentration (0.09 and 0.18 M), calcination temperature (700 and 800 °C), and calcination time (2 and 8 h) were studied by modern characterization techniques. The octahedral LiMn1.5Ni0.5O4 particles with disordered spinel structure (space group of F d 3 ¯ m ) were obtained by calcination at 800 °C for 2 h. With the increase of precursors’ concentration and prolonging the calcination time, the particle size increased from 220 to 845 nm and the particle size distribution became wider. Furthermore, the corners and edges of the octahedral particles were chamfered by appearing the (100) family planes at longer calcination times. The truncated LiMn1.5Ni0.5O4 particles showed a high discharge specific capacity of 133 mAh g−1 at current rate of 0.1C and a high capacity retention of 99.3% following 50 cycles.