Lithium-Ion Conductor Li₂ZrO₃-Coated Primary Particles To Optimize the Performance of Li-Rich Mn-Based Cathode Materials

A lithium-rich manganese-based cathodematerial (LRMC) is currentlyconsidered as one of the most promising next-generation materialsfor lithium-ion batteries, which has received much attention, butthe LRMC still faces some key scientific issues to break through,such as poor rate capacity, rapid voltage, capacity decay, and lowfirst coulomb efficiency. In this work, homogeneous Li2ZrO3 (LZO) was successfully coated on the surface of Li1.2Mn0.54Ni0.13Co0.13O2 (LRO) by molten salt-assisted sintering technology. Li2ZrO3 has good chemical and electrochemical stability,which can effectively inhibit the side reaction between electrodematerials and electrolytes and reduce the dissolution of transitionmetal ions. Thus, the as-prepared LRO@LZO composites are expectedto improve the cycling performance. It can be found that the dischargespecific capacity of LRO is 271 mAh g(-1) at 0.1 C,and the capacity retention rate is still 93.7% after 100 cycles at1 C. In addition, Li2ZrO3 is an excellent lithium-ionconductor, which is prone to increasing the lithium-ion transfer rateand improving the rate capacity of LRO. Therefore, this study providesa new solution to improve the structure stability and electrochemicalperformance of LRMCs.