Synthesis of porous LiFe sub(0.2)Mn sub(1.8)O sub(4) with high performance for lithium-ion battery

A facile and effective route was developed for the fabrication of LiFe sub(0.2)Mn sub(1.8)O sub(4) with porous structures by using Pluronic P-123 as a soft template, based on a nitrate decomposition method. The resultant LiFe sub(0.2)Mn sub(1.8)O sub(4) was characterized by XRD, SEM, as well as N sub(2) adsorption/desorption measurements which showed a porous structure with a pore size centered at 20 nm. When used as cathode materials in lithium battery, the as-synthesized LiFe sub(0.2)Mn sub(1.8)O sub(4) exhibited a discharge capacity of 122 mAh g super(-1) at 1 C and 102 mAh g super(-1) at 5 C. Moreover, after 500 cycles, the capacity retention (108 mAh g super(-1)) reached 88% of the initial capacity at 1 C. As compared with conventional cathode LiMn sub(2)O sub(4), the high performance is believed to originate from the combined effects of porous structure, iron doping and highly crystalline nature of the obtained LiFe sub(0.2)Mn sub(1.8)O sub(4). This strategy is expected to allow the fabrication of other multiple metal oxides with porous structures for high performance cathode materials.