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Structural origin of the high-voltage instability of lithium cobalt oxide

Nature Nanotechnology volume 16, pages 599–605 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Layered lithium cobalt oxide (LiCoO2, LCO) is the most successful commercial cathode material in lithium-ion batteries. However, its notable structural instability at potentials higher than 4.35 V (versus Li/Li+) constitutes the major barrier to accessing its theoretical capacity of 274 mAh g−1. Although a few high-voltage LCO (H-LCO) materials have been discovered and commercialized, the structural origin of their stability has remained difficult to identify. Here, using a three-dimensional continuous rotation electron diffraction method assisted by auxiliary high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, we investigate the structural differences at the atomistic level between two commercial LCO materials: a normal LCO (N-LCO) and a H-LCO. These powerful tools reveal that the curvature of the cobalt oxide layers occurring near the surface dictates the structural stability of the material at high potentials and, in turn, the electrochemical performances. Backed up by theoretical calculations, this atomistic understanding of the structure–performance relationship for layered LCO materials provides useful guidelines for future design of new cathode materials with superior structural stability at high voltages.

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Fig. 1: Electrochemical and in-situ PXRD characterizations of N-LCO and H-LCO during their first charge–discharge process.
Fig. 2: cRED schematic and the combined cRED and HRTEM characterizations of pristine LCOs.
Fig. 3: Combined cRED and HRTEM characterizations of charged LCOs.
Fig. 4: Theoretical calculations of curved LCO structure.
Fig. 5: Schematic illustration of the LCO structural evolutions during charge.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This research is financially supported by the National Key R&D Programme of China (no. 2016YFB0700600), Guangdong Innovative Team Programme (2013N080), Guangdong Key-lab Project (no. 2017B0303010130), Shenzhen Science and Technology Research Grant (no. ZDSYS20170728102618), National Basic Research Programme of China (nos. 2013CB933402 and 2016YFA0301004) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (nos. 21527803, 21621061 and 21871009).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Jianyuan Li, Cong Lin.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Advanced Materials, Peking University, Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen, China

    Jianyuan Li, Cong Lin, Mouyi Weng, Kai Yang, Weiyuan Huang, Mingjian Zhang, Cheng Dong, Wenguang Zhao & Feng Pan

  2. College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Jianyuan Li, Cong Lin, Yi Qiu, Pohua Chen, Yuexian Hong, Jian Li & Junliang Sun

  3. Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Zhi Xu

  4. Key Laboratory of Luminescence and Optical Information, Ministry of Education, School of Science, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, China

    Xi Wang

  5. Battery Science Branch, US Army Research Laboratory, Adelphi, MA, USA

    Kang Xu

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Contributions

F.P., J.S., K.X. and C.L. conceived the work and designed the experiments. Jianyuan Li, C.L. and W.H. carried out the electrochemical measurements. Jianyuan Li, C.L., P.C. and Y.H. performed the in-situ PXRD experiments. Jianyuan Li and C.L. carried out the cRED and HRTEM characterizations. Y.Q., P.C. and Jian Li assisted with the cRED data analyses. C.L. conducted the FIB treatments. M.W. performed the theoretical calculations. C.L. and W.Z. carried out the SEM and EDS measurements. Jianyuan Li and C.L. performed the XPS measurements. C.L. carried out the ICP-AES experiments. M.Z. collected the synchrotron PXRD data and C.L. carried out the structure refinements. M.Z. and C.D. helped the PXRD analyses. K.Y. performed the DEMS measurements. Z.X. and X.W. helped with the TEM experiments. Jianyuan Li, C.L., K.X., J.S. and F.P. wrote the manuscript. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Cong Lin, Kang Xu, Junliang Sun or Feng Pan.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Peer review information Nature Nanotechnology thanks Shi Xue Dou, Michael Toney and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–14, Tables 1–5, Notes 1–2 and refs. 1–20.

Supplementary Video 1

Data collection and reconstructed reciprocal lattice of cRED for H-LCO-P.

Supplementary Video 2

Data collection and reconstructed reciprocal lattice of cRED for N-LCO-P.

Supplementary Video 3

Data collection and reconstructed reciprocal lattice of cRED for N-LCO-4.2.

Supplementary Video 4

Data collection and reconstructed reciprocal lattice of cRED for H-LCO-4.2.

Supplementary Video 5

Data collection and reconstructed reciprocal lattice of cRED for N-LCO-4.5.

Supplementary Video 6

Data collection and reconstructed reciprocal lattice of cRED for H-LCO-4.5.

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Li, J., Lin, C., Weng, M. et al. Structural origin of the high-voltage instability of lithium cobalt oxide. Nat. Nanotechnol. 16, 599–605 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-021-00855-x

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