Electrochimica Acta, Vol.228, 160-166, 2017
Highly-pure triplite 3.9V-LiFeSO4F synthesized by a single-step solid-state process and its high electrochemical performance
In this study, triplite 3.9V-LiFeSO4F in single step solid-state reaction with various precursors was synthesized by understanding the reaction pathway that it forms. The loss of fluorine during a heat treatment can be a main problem because it can cause the formation of non-fluorine compounds such as Li2Fe(SO4)(2) phase, which are undesirable impurity phases. An additional fluorine source was used to compensate the loss of fluorine and led to the formation of highly-pure triplite LiFeSO4F. Furthermore, additional supplementation with sucrose as a carbon source produced highly-pure LiFeSO4F nano particles, coated with a carbon layer. This resulting material can achieve superior rate capability up to 20C rate (3 min discharge), similar to 73 mAhg(-1) and have excellent capacity retention for 350 cycles at 1C charge/1C discharge rate even though the structure of triplite LiFeSO4F does not have an apparent long Li diffusion pathway due to a disordered Li/Fe distribution. These results demonstrate that triplite LiFeSO4F is a promising cathode material with respect to energy density and scalable synthesis capability. Furthermore, this solid-state reaction with additional fluorine source will open novel ways to further engineer the material properties of LiFeSO4F or other fluorine containing compounds. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:Triplite LiFeSO4F;Carbon coating;Single step solid state reaction;PVDF;High potential cathode material