Recent Report on the Hydrothermal Growth of LiFePO4 as a Cathode Material

Abstract

Various growth processes have been utilized for the development of lithium iron phosphate including microwave treatment, spray thermal decomposition, sol-gel and the hydrothermal route. However, microwave treatment, spray process and sol-gel suffer from high costs and difficulties in controlling growth parameters. In this review paper, recent synthetic strategies, including the raw materials utilized for the hydrothermal growth of lithium iron phosphate, their effect on the basic characteristics and, as a consequence, the electrochemical performance of cathodes, are reported. The advantages of the hydrothermal process, including high material stability, eco-friendliness, low production costs and material abundance, are explained along with the respective processing parameters, which can be easily tuned to modify lithium iron phosphate characteristics such as structure, morphology and particle size. Specifically, we focus on strategies that were applied in the last three years to improve the performance and electrochemical stability of the cathode utilizing carbon-based materials, N-doped graphene oxide and multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), along with the addition of metallic nanoparticles such as silver. Finally, future perspectives on the hydrothermal process are discussed including the simultaneous growth of powders and solid-state electrodes (i.e., growth of lithium iron phosphate on a rigid substrate) and the improvement in morphology and orientation for its establishment and standardization for the growth of energy storage materials.

Effect of Electrolyte Concentration on the Electrochemical Performance of Spray Deposited LiFePO4

“…The power law model can be used to estimate the charge storage mechanism. The peak current and the scan rate follow the power law as shown in Equations ( 6) and ( 7) [56] i = av b (6) log(i) = blog(v) + log(a) (7) Figure 5 (right) presents the variation of log (peak current) as a function with log(scan rate) and the fitted lines of LiFePO4 studied in 1 M and 2 M LiOH aqueous electrolyte. The data obtained from the 0.5 M electrolyte were not further studied due to the general low performance.…”

“…Hence, there is a lot of space for research to explore ways to improve the material’s performance. There is an increasing interest in the optimization of the synthesis route (doping modification, morphological regulation, nanosized particles) [ 4 , 5 , 6 ], the coating with electron-conducting layer and orientation control [ 7 ], and computational research on the understanding of the ionic dynamic properties of LiFePO 4 [ 8 ]. However, there is not sufficient information on the investigation of LiFePO 4 thin films as cathodes.…”

CODIT 2023 Modeling of Smart Batteries for the Realization of a Digital Twin Prototype

“…Conventional cathode materials used for lithium batteries include lithium oxides, such as LiCoO2 and LiMn2O4, but these materials also have limitations in terms of energy density and durability [24]. New cathode materials in development include lithium sulfides and lithium phosphates [25]. Finally, it is important to develop new electrolytes to improve the stability and durability of lithium batteries.…”

Engineering electrode microstructures for advanced lithium-ion batteries

“…These electrodes provide advantages in power density, high-rate capability, gravimetric capacity, memory effect reduction, fracture toughness, and durability against fatigue. Furthermore, functionalizing a battery material concerning its superior rate capability, extended cycling performance and high specific capacity for LIBs has been the focus of morphology engineering [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] . Using synergistic benefits of each structure design, incorporating active materials into functionalized microstructural morphology can help develop novel electrochemical performance-governing materials [17][18][19] .…”