Urea-assisted combustion synthesis of porous Li1.2Ni0.13Co0.13Mn0.54O2 microspheres as high-performance lithium-ion battery cathodes

An initial urea-assisted combustion and subsequent high-temperature crystallisation route have been used to prepare porous Li1.2Ni0.13Co0.13Mn0.54O2 microspheres. The as obtained microspheres with the size of 2–4 μm are composed of numerous nanoparticles, and these nanoparticles with clear corner and edge have the size of 100–200 nm. A possible formation process of porous microspheres structures is discussed. As lithium-ion battery cathodes, the porous microspheres can deliver an initial discharge capacity of 252.3 mAh g−1 with high Coulombic efficiency of 80.6% at current density of 20 mA g−1, and keep a stable discharge capacity of 115.5 mAh g−1 at 1000 mA g−1. Although the sample obtained without urea only deliver a discharge capacity of 66.7 mAh g−1 at 1000 mA g−1. Maybe, the facile urea-assisted combustion route is suitable for the synthesis of lithium-rich layered oxides as lithium-ion battery cathodes.