Thin-film and bulk investigations of LiCoBO₃ as a Li-ion battery cathode

The compound LiCoBO3 is an appealing candidate for next-generation Li-ion batteries based on its high theoretical specific capacity of 215 mAh/g and high expected discharge voltage (more than 4 V vs Li(+)/Li). However, this level of performance has not yet been realized in experimental cells, even with nanosized particles. Reactive magnetron sputtering was therefore used to prepare thin films of LiCoBO3, allowing the influence of the particle thickness on the electrochemical performance to be explicitly tested. Even when ultrathin films (∼15 nm) were prepared, there was a negligible electrochemical response from LiCoBO3. Impedance spectroscopy measurements suggest that the conductivity of LiCoBO3 is many orders of magnitude worse than that of LiFeBO3 and may severely limit the performance. The unusual blue color of LiCoBO3 was investigated by spectroscopic techniques, which allowed the determination of a charge-transfer optical gap of 4.2 eV and the attribution of the visible light absorption peak at 2.2 eV to spin-allowed d → d transitions (assigned as overlapping (4)A2' to (4)A2″ and (4)E″ final states based on ligand-field modeling).