Designing of a Novel Core-Shell-Structured Co-free Cathode Material with Enhanced Thermal and Structural Stability for Lithium Ion Batteries

The first commercialized cathode material, $LiCoO_2$, suffers from disadvantages such as high cost and toxicity and also possesses safety problems. The nickel-rich $LiNi_{0.9}Mn_{0.1}O_2$ cathode material, used as an alternative to $LiCoO_2$, has highly reversible capacity and high energy density. So, the nickel-rich $LiNi_{0.9}Mn_{0.1}O_2$ cathode material is widely used as an alternative to $LiCoO_2$ due to its highly reversible capacity and high energy density. However, $LiNi_{0.9}Mn_{0.1}O_2$ has several disadvantages as well, such as poor cycle performance and poor thermal instability. To address these problems, we synthesized a new material, $LiNi_{0.5}Mn_{0.5}O_2$, as a shell on the surface of a core to suppress the surface degradation. The new material showed high structural and thermal stabilities and could also maintain a high capacity. The capacity retention of the core-shell cathode (87.7%) was better than that of the core cathode (76.9%) after 50 cycles. Analysis using differential scanning calorimetry revealed that the heat generation in the core-shell cathode ($65.9Jg^{-1}$) was lower than that in the core cathode ($559.7Jg^{-1}$).