Synthesis Method for Long Cycle Life Lithium-Ion Cathode Material: Nickel-Rich Core–Shell LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2

High-nickel materials with core–shell structures, whose bulk is rich in nickel content and the outer shell is rich in manganese content, have been demonstrated to improve cycle stability. The high-nickel cathode material LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 is a very promising material for lithium-ion batteries; however, its low rate performance and especially cycle performance currently hamper further commercialization. This study presents a new synthesis method to prepare this core–shell material (LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2@x[Li–Mn–O], x = 0.01, 0.03, 0.06). Electrochemical data show that LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2@x[Li–Mn–O] (x = 0.03, CS-0.03) exhibits the best high-rate performance, cycle stability, and thermal stability. The initial discharge capacity of the core–shell sample CS-0.03 is 118 mAh g–1, which is almost the same as the discharge capacity of pristine LiNi0.8Mn0.1Co0.1O2 (117 mAh g–1) at the rate of 10 C in the voltage range of 3.0–4.3 V. Notably the capacity decay of CS-0.03 is 18.4% after 200 cycles compared to 27% decay in capacity of the pristine sample. Furthermore, CS-0.03 exhibits better thermal cycling stability. The capacity retention of the CS-0.03 sample reached 65.1% which is over 1.3 times than that of the pristine one, whose capacity retention is 49.2% after 105 cycles (55 °C). Evidently, the core–shell structured CS-0.03 sample has excellent cycle stability and this synthesis method can be applied to other cathode materials.