A systematic
study on the structures, magnetic properties, and
electrochemical performance of Li
x
FePO4 was carried out. Interestingly, it was found that the magnetic
phase transition temperature is around 295 K in Li
x
FePO4 (x ≤ 0.12) nanocrystals,
which is higher than that of LiFePO4 (T
N = 51(1) K) and FePO4 (T
N = 114(1) K) phases. The origin of magnetic order around room
temperature (RT) in Li
x
FePO4 (x ≤ 0.12) is proposed to be due to both
Fe2+–Fe3+ superexchange and the broken
local symmetries induced by Fe2+–Li+ antisite
defects. Ab initio calculations were adopted to calculate the total
energy change of the ferromagnetic state and antiferromagnetic state
(ΔE) to qualitatively estimate T
N and proved the existence of the magnetic order around
room temperature. Because of the strong Lorentz force in RT magnetic
domains, Li ions will be trapped and form sub-10 nm solid solution
domains of Li0+δFePO4, which have a direct
relationship with electrochemical performance during (de)lithiation
procedures.
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