Impacts of electrolyte solvent soakage on structure and electrochemical performance of LiCoO2 for lithium-ion batteries

Commercial LiCoO2 for lithium-ion batteries is high-energy ball-milled to nanoscale sizes. Bare and Al2O3-coated nano- LiCoO2 particles are soaked in a mixture of ethylene carbonate and dimethyl carbonate. The influences of solvent soakage on the structure and electrochemical performance of the material are characterized with X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, inductively coupled plasma technique, and galvonostatic electrochemical cycling. It is shown that solvent soakage has significant impact on the structure and electrochemical properties of bare and Al2O3-coated LiCoO2 positive electrode materials. (C) 2004 The Electrochemical Society.