Rapid Polyol-Assisted Microwave Synthesis of Nanocrystalline LiFePO4/C Cathode for Lithium-Ion Batteries

Nanocrystalline LiFePO4/C has been synthesized under a very short period of time (90 sec) using a polyol-assisted microwave heating synthesis technique. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) data indicates that the rapidly synthesized materials correspond to phase pure olivine. Post-annealing of the as-prepared sample at 600 °C in argon atmosphere yields highly crystalline LiFePO4/C. The morphology of the samples studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) reveals the presence of secondary particles formed from aggregation of primary particles in the range of 30-50 nm. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images reveal a thin carbon layer coating on the surface of the primary particle. The charge/discharge studies indicate that the as-prepared and annealed LiFePO4/C samples delivered initial discharge capacities of 126 and 160 mA h g-1, respectively, with good capacity retentions at 0.05 mA cm-2 current densities. The post-annealing process indeed improves the crystallinity of the LiFePO4 nanocrystals, which enhances the electrode performance of LiFePO4/C.