Effect of micron sized particle on the electrochemical properties of nickel-rich LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 cathode materials

Particle size plays an important role in the electrochemical properties of cathode materials for lithium-ion battery, and the sizes of cathode powders are often designed to specific scales to obtain desired rate capacity, cyclic stability, etc. Nano-sized or micron-sized primary/secondary particles were both reported to be helpful to heighten the electrochemical properties of the same material system. However, the relationship between particle size and electrochemical properties of Ni-rich LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 (NCM-811) has not been discussed in detail. Here, we prepared the pristine NCM-811 powders with various micro-sized particles by using solid state reaction, and investigated the influence of particle size on the electrochemical properties of typical NCM-811 cathode material, to clarify the importance of size effect. The result indicates that pristine NCM-811 cathode powders with D50 = 7.7 μm displayed the best initial discharge specific capacity (224.5 and 169.1 mA h/g at 1/20 C and 1 C rate, respectively) and retention capacity (71.0% at 1 C rate) after 100th cycling at room temperature. The mutual acting mechanism in terms of layered structure, cation mixing degree, polarization state, charge-transfer resistance, and the diffusion ability of lithium-ion was confirmed by XRD, XPS, CV and EIS analyses, respectively.