Abstract
Nickel-rich
LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2
(LNCM811) is a promising lithium-ion battery cathode material, whereas
the surface-sensitive issues (i.e., side reaction and oxygen loss)
occurring on LNCM811 particles significantly degrade their
electrochemical capacity retentions. A uniform
Li2ZrO3 coating layer can effectively
mitigate the problem by preventing these issues. Instead of the normally
used weak hydrogen-bonding interaction, we present a covalent
interfacial engineering for the uniform
Li2ZrO3 coating on
LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2
materials. Results indicate that the strong covalent interactions
between citric acid and
Ni0.8Co0.1Mn0.1(OH)2
precursor effectively promote the adsorption of ZrO2
coating species on
Ni0.8Co0.1Mn0.1(OH)2
precursor, which is eventually converted to uniform
Li2ZrO3 coating layers of about 7 nm
after thermal annealing. The uniform
Li2ZrO3 coating endows LNCM811 cathode
materials with an exceptionally high capacity retention of 98.7% after
300 cycles at 1 C. This work shows the great potential of covalent
interfacial engineering for improving the electrochemical cycling
capability of Ni-rich lithium-ion battery cathode materials.