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Despite the high energy density of lithium-rich (Li-rich) cathodes, their implementation is hampered by the unsatisfied rate capacity and poor cycling performance accompanied with substantial voltage decay. To address these issues, the hierarchical yolk-shell structured Li1.2Mn0.54Ni0.13Co0.13O2 cathodes (YK-LMNCO) was proposed and synthesized through a facile glycerol assisted solvothermal approach and the following lithiation process. Benefitting from the shortened lithium diffusion lengths and the enhanced tolerance to the large volume variation upon lithium ions intercalation/de-intercalation, the unique structure reciprocates an initial coulombic efficiency of 85.8%, an outstanding capacity retention rate of 89.1% after cycling at 2.0 C for 200 cycles with a minor voltage drop, and a capacity retention rate of 93.8% after cycling at 10.0 C for 500 cycles, 85.2% for 1,000 cycles. When assembled with graphite as anode, the YK-LMNCO//graphite full cell shows a remarkable capacity retention rate of 87.2% after cycling at 5.0 C for 50 cycles. Our facile strategy for constructing the yolk-shell structured Li-rich cathodes with high capacity and voltage stability sheds light on synthesizing other lithium storage materials.


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Hierarchical yolk-shell structured Li-rich cathode boosting cycling and voltage stabled LIBs

Show Author's information Yanchen Liu1,2,§Yafen Chen1,§Jing Wang1Wei Wang1Zhiyu Ding1Leyuan Li1Yang Zhang1Yida Deng2,3Junwei Wu1( )Yanan Chen2( )
Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), Shenzhen 518055, China
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Advanced Ceramics and Machining Technology of Ministry of Education, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Composite and Functional Materials, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China

§ Yanchen Liu and Yafen Chen contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

Despite the high energy density of lithium-rich (Li-rich) cathodes, their implementation is hampered by the unsatisfied rate capacity and poor cycling performance accompanied with substantial voltage decay. To address these issues, the hierarchical yolk-shell structured Li1.2Mn0.54Ni0.13Co0.13O2 cathodes (YK-LMNCO) was proposed and synthesized through a facile glycerol assisted solvothermal approach and the following lithiation process. Benefitting from the shortened lithium diffusion lengths and the enhanced tolerance to the large volume variation upon lithium ions intercalation/de-intercalation, the unique structure reciprocates an initial coulombic efficiency of 85.8%, an outstanding capacity retention rate of 89.1% after cycling at 2.0 C for 200 cycles with a minor voltage drop, and a capacity retention rate of 93.8% after cycling at 10.0 C for 500 cycles, 85.2% for 1,000 cycles. When assembled with graphite as anode, the YK-LMNCO//graphite full cell shows a remarkable capacity retention rate of 87.2% after cycling at 5.0 C for 50 cycles. Our facile strategy for constructing the yolk-shell structured Li-rich cathodes with high capacity and voltage stability sheds light on synthesizing other lithium storage materials.

Keywords: cathode, cycling stability, yolk-shell structure, lithium-rich (Li-rich) layered oxides, lithium-ion battery (LIBs)

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 30 June 2021
Revised: 20 August 2021
Accepted: 15 September 2021
Published: 12 November 2021
Issue date: April 2022

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2021

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the financial support from Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (No. 2018A030313721), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2018YFB0703500) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 91963113).

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