Applications of LiCr^sub x^Mn^sub 2−x^O^sub 4^ cathode material with high capacity and high rate in high-temperature battery

Partially chromium-doped lithium manganese spinel oxides (LiCrxMn2−xO4) prepared by solid-state reaction, are applied as cathode active materials to high-temperature batteries. Doping of trivalent chromium ions is to improve the stability of the spinel material to obtain better electrochemical performance of lithium manganese spinel oxides. In this work, we report the LiCrxMn2−xO4 compatibility with nitrate and discharge characteristics in nitrate with Li-Mg-B alloy. LiCrxMn2−xO4 has good compatibility with nitrate confirmed by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) test at a range of room temperature to 400 °C. The doping amount of chromium has a crucial influence on the discharge performance of the Li-Mg-B/LiNO3-KNO3-Ca(NO3)2/LiCrxMn2−xO4 battery and the specific capacity of LiCr0.1Mn1.9O4 cathode material reach 998 mAh g−1 at 10 mA·cm−2 at 200 °C. Further, we find that the chromium-doped cathode material has good discharge performance over a temperature range of 200 to 300 °C at current densities ranging from 10 to 30 mA·cm−2. This makes the Li-Mg-B/LiNO3-KNO3-Ca(NO3)2/LiCrxMn2−xO4 battery is extremely suitable for geothermal and oil/gas drilling.