Facilitated Coating of Li₃PO₄ on the Rough Surface of LiNi_0.85Co_0.1Mn_0.05O₂ Cathodes by Synchronous Lithiation

Ni-rich cathode materials used in power cells have attracted great attention on account of their higher specific capacity at a lower price. Nevertheless, their inherent shortcomings suppress their large-scale commercial applications. Therefore, a LiNi0.85Co0.1Mn0.05O2 cathode material with a uniform Li3PO4 coating is designed and fabricated successfully through a facile synchronous lithiation process. The morphology and structure of these materials are detected by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD). The electrochemical performance with different coating amounts is also studied in detail. The results obtained using the above techniques prove that a uniform coating layer with moderate thickness could result in an enhanced initial Coulombic efficiency (ICE) of 89.1%, a promising capacity retention of 94.3%, and a favorable rate performance of 80.0 mA h·g–1 at 10C rate.