Production of Eu-doped LiFePO4 by glass-ceramic technique and investigation of their thermal, structural, electrochemical performances

LiFe1-xEuxPO4 (x = 0-0.1) samples were successfully fabricated by glass-ceramics technique quenching from high temperature. Thermal properties were analyzed by DTA analysis. Crystallization activation energy and Avrami parameters were calculated depending on the Eu content and heating rates. The XRD analysis shows that there are two-phases of LiFePO4 and Li3Fe2P3O12 which compete with Eu-doping in the samples and it is found that the x = 0.02 sample has the lowest impurity phases. The battery cells exhibit similar cycling voltammetry (CV) data with the undoped LiFePO4 battery cells. The charging/discharging cycles measurements were done for C/2-rate at room conditions and the best capacity value for C/2-rate was obtained as 149.4 mAh/g for x = 0.02 Eu-doped sample. Although the best capacity was obtained for x = 0.02, the best capacity fade was obtained for x = 0.03 Eu-doped sample. C-rate measurements provided that x = 0.02 cells have the promising results for the battery applications.

Automated summary

Eu-doped LiFePO4 samples were successfully fabricated using glass-ceramics technique, and their thermal properties and structure were analyzed. The results showed that the x=0.02 sample had the lowest impurity phases and the best capacity value, indicating its potential for battery applications.