Urea and Ethylene Glycol‐Assisted Solvothermal Synthesis of Spheroidal LiFePO <sub>4</sub> /C Nanoparticles as a Cathode Material for Lithium‐ion Batteries
Аннотация
Abstract Spheroidal LiFePO 4 /C nanoparticles were synthesized successfully via a urea and ethylene glycol‐assisted solvothermal synthetic route combined with high‐temperature calcinations under different solvothermal time and carbon coating amounts. The obtained samples were characterized with various techniques, including X‐ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and electrochemical performance experiments. The test results showed that urea as an additive plays a critical role in controlling morphologies of the final products and ethylene glycol as a stabilizer avoids the agglomeration of particles in the process. As a promising cathode material of lithium ion batteries, the LiFePO 4 /C in this work could provide an initiate discharge capacity of 155 mAh⋅g –1 and maintain 91.6% of initial capacity after 100 cycles at 0.1 C. The discharge capacity is 78.8 mAh⋅g –1 when circulating at high rate up to 10 C, showing excellent discharge performance. Furthermore, the in‐situ generated carbon ensures the higher electrical conductivity and the nano‐sized spheroidal LiFePO 4 /C particles prolong the cycle life of batteries, thus exhibiting high charge‐discharge capability, excellent rate properties and stable cycling behavior.