Effect of coatings on the green electrode processing and cycling behaviour of LiCoPO4Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c6ta05262b

Several approaches involving carbon and VO x coatings of LiCoPO 4 to enable aqueous electrode processing are reported in this manuscript along with detailed physico-chemical and electrochemical investigations. It is shown that the choice of the carbon source has a severe impact not only on the purity, particle size and morphology of LiCoPO 4 , but also on its electrochemical performance. Although carbon coating improves the conductivity of LiCoPO 4 and protects the particles' surface from direct contact with the electrolyte, it also leads to capacity fading upon cycling at high potentials. Reducing the carbon amount leads to an initially reduced capacity, but it significantly improves the stability upon cycling. Finally, the application of an additional VO x coating was also investigated. Natural compounds such as sucrose and Na-carboxymethyl cellulose enhance the cycling behavior of the high-voltage LiCoPO 4 cathode material.