Abstract. The diffusion coefficient of Li+ ions (DLi) in the battery material LixCoO2 has been investigated by means of muon-spin relaxation (µ + SR), because DLi for positive electrode materials has not been determined correctly so far. Based on performing the experiments in zerofield and weak longitudinal-fields at temperatures up to 400 K, we determined the fluctuation rate (ν) of the fields on the muons due to their interaction with the nuclear moments. Combined with susceptibility data and electrostatic potential calculations, clear Li + ion diffusion was detected above ∼ 150 K. The DLi estimated from ν was in very good agreement with predictions from first-principles calculations, and we present the µ + SR technique as a novel and optimal probe to detect DLi of unique usefulness for materials containing magnetic ions.
IntroductionIn spite of a long research history on lithium insertion materials for Li-ion batteries [1, 2], e.g., LiCoO 2 , LiNiO 2 , and LiMn 2 O 4 , one of their most important intrinsic physical properties, the Li + ions diffusion coefficient (D Li ), has not yet been determined with any reliability. Although Li NMR is a powerful technique to measure D Li for non-magnetic materials, it is particularly difficult to evaluate D Li for materials containing magnetic ions, because the magnetic ions induce additional pathways for the spin-lattice relaxation rate (1/T 1 ), resulting in huge 1/T 1 compared with that expected for only the diffusive motion of Li ions.Such difficulty was clearly evident in the 1/T 1 (T ) curve for LiCoO 2 and LiNiO 2 [3,4], and, for that reason, D Li was instead estimated from the Li-NMR line width [5]. However, since the line width, i.e., the spin-spin relaxation rate (1/T 2 ) is also affected by the magnetic ions, the D Li obtained by Li-NMR for LiCoO 2 (= 1 × 10 −14 cm 2 s −1 at 400 K) is approximately four orders of magnitude smaller than predicted by first-principles calculations [6]. Since lithium insertion materials always include transition metal ions, in order to maintain charge neutrality during the extraction and/or insertion of Li + ions, it is consequently very difficult to determine D Li for these compounds unambiguously by Li-NMR.On the other hand, the chemical diffusion coefficient (D chem