The Role of Surface and Interface Energy on Phase Stability of Nanosized Insertion Compounds

Thermodynamic theory reveals the impact of surface and interface energies on the equilibrium properties and solubility limits of interstitial ions in nanosized crystallites. Applied to LixFePO(4) especially interface energy contributions play important roles, and their effect explains observations of the narrowing of electrochemically measured miscibility gaps in nanostructured electrodes.