Issue 1, 2023

Atomic-scale insight into the lattice volume plunge of LixCoO2 upon deep delithiation

Abstract

The practical capacity utilization of LiCoO2 is limited to 50–70% due to the dramatic volume shrinkage induced cracks and subsequent interface parasitic reactions at high voltage. However, the fundamental understanding of the dramatic lattice volume shrinkage remains unclear. In this work, we discover that the delithiation paths have an impact on the lattice volume turning point of LixCoO2, where the corresponding capacity utilization can be as low as 62.5% or as high as 75% consequently. In addition, the O ↔ O interlayer distance across the Li layer (O(d3)) mainly contributes to the volume increase before 62.5–75% delithiation, and the O ↔ O interlayer distance across the Co layer (O(d2)) is the dominant factor for the dramatic volume decrease after the volume turning point. The electron localization function (ELF) around O keeps increasing during delithiation and it increases significantly after more than 62.5% delithiation, indicating that the lattice oxygen participates in charge compensation during the whole delithiation process and it becomes the main contributor to the charge compensation at a high delithiated state compared with Co. This work unravels the fundamental reason for the dramatic volume shrinkage of LixCoO2 at high voltage. It claims that the antisite defects (CoLi) of LiCoO2 should be designed carefully owing to the weaker Co–O bond strength and further oxygen release, which accelerate the degradation of LiCoO2, although it can increase the voltage of LiCoO2. More importantly, LiCoO2 material design with elemental doping, oxygen defects (VO), Li defects (VLi), and Co defects (VCo) will contribute to the capacity utilization of LiCoO2.

Graphical abstract: Atomic-scale insight into the lattice volume plunge of LixCoO2 upon deep delithiation

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
12 Okt 2022
Accepted
01 Nov 2022
First published
02 Nov 2022
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Energy Adv., 2023,2, 103-112

Atomic-scale insight into the lattice volume plunge of LixCoO2 upon deep delithiation

Y. He, L. Wang, B. Zhang, H. Pham, H. Xu, J. Park and X. He, Energy Adv., 2023, 2, 103 DOI: 10.1039/D2YA00278G

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