Development of Li(Ni1/3Mn1/3Co1/3-x Na x )O2 cathode materials by synthesizing with glycine nitrate combustion technique for Li-ion rechargeable batteries

Glycine nitrate combustion technique was investigated for synthesizing Li(Ni1/3Mn1/3Co1/3-x Na x )O2, x = 0–0.11 based transition metal oxide cathode materials for the rechargeable Li-ion battery (LIB) under this study. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy analysis showed that the synthesized powder samples were well crystalline rather spherical secondary particles. These secondary particles were composed of softly agglomerated nano-scale primary particles. The room temperature electrical conductivity of these Na-doped materials was significantly higher than that of the base material (2.60 × 10−7 S/cm). Among them, the x = 0.04 material reported the highest electrical conductivity of 1.02 × 10−03 S cm−1. The half-cell assembled with cathode fabricated from Li(Ni1/3Mn1/3Co1/3)O2 base material showed an initial discharge capacity of 187 mA h−1 g−1 with 25 mA h−1 g−1 irreversible capacity loss and 88.47% columbic efficiency at C/5 rate with a cut-off voltage of 2.5–4.6 V at 25 °C. The electrochemical behavior of the x = 0.04 cathode showed a comparable initial discharge capacity as of the base material but with improved capacity retention.