Synthesis and characterization of nanostructured cathode materials for rechargeable lithium/lithium ion batteries

The rapidly increasing markets of portable electronic devices and electric/hybrid vehicles have raised worldwide R&D efforts in developing high-energy rechargeable lithium and lithium ion batteries. High performance intercalation cathodes are key to the success of these batteries. The nanotechnology has endowed the electrode materials with a variety of improved features as well as unique characteristics. Synthesis approaches were designed in this thesis work to utilize these advantages and investigate the exceptional phenomena raised by the nanostructured materials.; A novel sol-gel method was designed for the synthesis of carbon-coated phase-pure lithium iron phosphate with submicron particle sizes and uniform size distribution. The surface carbon coating was formed in-situ through pyrolysis of the precursor gel, which improved the apparent electronic conductivity of the as prepared material to 10-2 S/cm compared with 10-9-10-10 S/cm of the pristine LiFePO 4. The favorable physical characteristics of the synthesized LiFePO 4 particles and the improved electronic conductivity through the carbon coating led to electrochemical properties comparable to the best performances reported so far.; Amorphous manganese oxide cryogels with nanoarchitecture were obtained by freeze-drying Mn (IV) oxide hydrogels. The combination of the advantages of the amorphous structure and the nano-architecture of the materials gave high capacities and excellent rate capabilities. This work led to the finding of a nanocrystalline Li2MnO3-like compound with a surprising electrochemical activity, which is in sharp contrast to the microcrystalline rock-salt Li2MnO3 that has been known to be electrochemically inactive. The study highlights the possibility of qualitative difference in intercalation behavior of nanostructured intercalation compounds compared with their microcrystalline counterparts.; Bismuth and copper modified amorphous manganese oxides were synthesized by aqueous coprecipitation methods and investigated as intercalation hosts for rechargeable lithium batteries. The results suggest the promise of achieving high performance intercalation electrodes by enhancing amorphous manganese oxides through cation modification.