Improvement of Electrochemical Properties of Ni-Rich Cathode Material by Polypyrrole Coating

In this study, we attempted a nanosized coating layer of commercial polypyrrole (PPy) on LiNi0.6Co0.1Mn0.3O2 (HNCM) cathode material to overcome the side reactions with electrolyte and a decrease in the capacity of the inert coating layer. The coating method using commercial PPy is very simple. The energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) analysis and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images confirmed that PPy coating layer was well dispersed and nanosized. The alternating current (AC) impedance studies revealed that the coating of PPy significantly decreased the charge-transfer resistance of HNCM electrodes. Moreover, the 1 wt% PPy-HNCM electrode exhibited good electrochemical performance with a specific discharge capacity of 177.52 mA h g(-1) at a rate of 0.1 C in the voltage range 3.0-4.3 V, whereas the capacity of the HNCM electrode was only 167.13 mA h g(-1).