Nanostructured Hybrid Layered-Spinel Cathode Material Synthesized by Hydrothermal Method for Lithium-Ion Batteries

Nanostructured spinel LiMn_1.5Ni_0.5O₄, layered Li_1.5Mn_0.75Ni_0.25O_2.5 and layered-spinel hybrid particles have been successfully synthesized by hydrothermal methods. It is found that the nanostructured hybrid cathode contains both spinel and layered components, which could be expressed as Li_1.13Mn_0.75Ni_0.25O_2.32. Diffraction-contrast bright-field (BF) and dark-field (DF) images illustrate that the hybrid cathode has well dispersed spinel component. Electrochemical measurements reveal that the first-cycle efficiency of the layered-spinel hybrid cathode is greatly improved (up to 90%) compared with that of the layered material (71%) by integrating spinel component. Our investigation demonstrates that the spinel containing hybrid material delivers a high capacity of 240 mAh g^–1 with good cycling stability between 2.0 and 4.8 V at a current rate of 0.1 C.