Boosting cell performance of LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 cathode material via structure design

Abstract Ni-rich cathodes exhibit appealing properties, such as high capacity density, low cost, and prominent energy density. However, the inferior ionic conductivity and bulk structural degradation become bottlenecks for Ni-rich cathodes and severely limit their commercial utilization. Traditional coating and doping methods suffer fatal drawbacks in functioning as a unit and cannot radically promote material performance to meet the needs of Li-ion batteries (LIBs). Herein, we successfully devised an ingenious and facile synthetic method to establish Ni-rich oxides with a La2Zr2O7 coating and Zr doping. The coating layer improves the ion diffusion kinetics and enhances Li-ion transportation while Zr doping effectively suppresses the phase transition of LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 cathode. Owing to the synergetic effect of Zr doping and La2Zr2O7 coating, the modified material shows prominent initial discharge capacity of 184.7 mAh g-1 at 5 C and maintains 177.5 mAh g-1 after 100 cycles at 1 C. Overall, the proposed feasible electrode design method can have a far-reaching impact on further fabrication of advanced cathodes for high-performance LIBs.