PNNL

Abstract

The chemical processes occurring on the surface of cathode materials during battery cycling play a crucial role in determining battery’s performance. However, our understanding on such surface chemistry is far from clear due to the complexity of redox chemistry during battery charge/discharge. In this work, through intensive aberration corrected STEM investigation on eight layered oxide cathode materials, we report two important findings on the pristine oxides. First, Ni and Co show strong plane selectivity when building up their respective surface segregation layers (SSL). Specifically, Ni-SSL is exclusively developed on (200)m facet in Li-Mn-rich oxides (monoclinic C2/m symmetry) and (012)h facet in Mn-Ni equally rich oxides (hexagonal R-3m symmetry), while Co-SSL has a strong preference to (20-2)m plane with minimal Co-SSL also developed on some other planes in LMR cathodes. Structurally, Ni-SSLs tend to form spinel-like lattice while Co-SSLs are in a rock-salt-like structure. Secondly, by increasing Ni concentration in these layered oxides, Ni and Co SSLs can be suppressed and even eliminated. Our findings indicate that Ni and Co SSLs are tunable through controlling particle morphology and oxide composition, which opens up a new way for future rational design and synthesis of cathode materials.