Spark Plasma Sintering of LiFePO4: AC Field Suppressing Lithium Migration

Abstract

Our work proposes a comparison between Spark Plasma Sintering of LiFePO4 carried out using an Alternating Current (AC) and Direct Current (DC). It quantifies the Li-ion migration using DC, and it validates such hypothesis using impedance spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy. The use of an AC field seems effective to inhibit undesired Li-ion migration and achieve high ionic conductivity as high as 4.5 × 10−3 S/cm, which exceeds by one order of magnitude samples processed under a DC field. These results anticipate the possibility of fabricating a high-performance all-solid-state Li-ion battery by preventing undesired Li loss during SPS processing.

Fabrication of ZnO Ceramics with Defects by Spark Plasma Sintering Method and Investigations of Their Photoelectrochemical Properties

“…After heat treatment in air, the X-ray diffraction data of ZnO(C)-3A show that the peak intensity in the direction is still weak. There are also a number of studies showing that the electric field of the pulsed current can affect the component or defect in ceramic [21,31]. Moreover, the [002] direction in zinc oxide is the direction with the highest polarity [33].…”

“…The sintering methods for preparing zinc oxide ceramics include cold sintering [16][17][18], ultra-high temperature sintering [19], flash sintering [20], and spark plasma sintering [21,22]. Spark plasma sintering (SPS) is a rapid sintering technique, which is widely used to fabricate metals [23,24], metallic alloys [25,26], carbide [27], various MAX-phase materials [28], and metallic oxide (ZnO, AZO) [29,30], etc.…”

Rapid and controllable synthesis of LiCoO2 cathode materials by reactive flash sintering

“…25 In addition, Luo et al used spark plasma sintering to treat LiFePO 4 and conducted research around the Li migration in electrode materials under DC and AC conditions. 26 At present, to the best of our knowledge, there are no reports on the preparation of LCO electrode material by RFS.…”