Beneficial impact of incorporating spinel lithium manganate and samarium oxide into high performance positive materials through ultrasonic cavitation strategy

Spinel LiMn 2 O 4 (LMO) positive material has the advantage of a robust structure with a three-dimensional network of channels for fast Li + conduction, which is one of the hot topics in the zero-cobalt electrodes field of new energy technology. Nonetheless, the spinel LiMn 2 O 4 has serious transition metal dissolution as well as phase/surface stability problems, resulting in unsatisfactory cycle performance which hinders large scale applications in the field of lithium-ion batteries. In this study, Sm 2 O 3 surface modified LiMn 2 O 4 positive material is obtained by a facile ultrasonic cavitation combined with sol-gel strategy. The structural and surface morphological are analyses by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and high resolution transmission electron microscopy illuminate the formation of the Sm 2 O 3 -coated LiMn 2 O 4 . Electrochemical analysis revealed that the LMO particles coated by the 1 wt% Sm 2 O 3 is exhibited the best electrochemical performance among other coated and non-coated samples, with an initial capacity of 110.92 mAh g −1 and a capacity retention of 94.79% after 200 cycles. Furthermore, ICP analysis is showed that the manganese dissolution of the modified material in organic electrolyte is much lower than that of pristine sample. This work may provoke wide interests in surface modification areas and motivate the further improvement of the electrochemical performance for other commercialized spinel lithium ion batteries (LIBs).