Oxalate based non-aqueous sol–gel synthesis of phase pure sub-micron LiFePO4

Abstract We report on the synthesis and preliminary characterisation by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Mossbauer spectroscopy and infrared spectroscopy (IR) of C-LiFePO4. Homogeneous sub-micron sized particles of surface carbon coated phase pure LiFePO4 are synthesised by a novel non-aqueous oxalate based sol–gel procedure. Our synthetic route successfully overcomes the incidence of Fe3+, effectively controls undesirable particle growth and has the potential for upscaling and application as Li-ion battery cathodes.