Solution-based
combinatorial samples of lithium cobalt manganese oxide were synthesized
and studied by X-ray diffraction in order to map out the pseudoternary
phase diagram over the entire metal composition ranges. This report
focuses on the single-phase layered region found to be made up of
a single composition line joining LiCoO2 to Li2MnO3. The solid solution was found to phase separate during
slow cooling (1 °C/min). The end points of this coexistence are
not LiCoO2 and Li2MnO3: instead the
Co-rich phase contains some Mn and the Mn-rich phase contains some
Co. This phase separation occurs at compositions where previous studies
showed nanodomain phase separation when an intermediate cooling rate
was used. The nanoscale composites are therefore an intermediate structure
that forms when there is insufficient time during cooling for large
scale crystallites of the new phases to form. A simple Monte Carlo
simulation was used to illustrate this phase separation and study
the impact of cooling rate.
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