The calcination temperature plays a significant role in the structural,
textural, and energy-storage performance of metal oxide nanomaterials
in Li-ion battery application. Here, we report the formation of well-crystallized
homogeneously dispersed Li1.2Mn0.54Ni0.13Co0.13O2 hollow nano/sub-microsphere architectures
through a simple cost-effective coprecipitation and chemical mixing
route without surface modification for improving the efficiency of
energy storage devices. The synthesized Li1.2Mn0.54Ni0.13Co0.13O2 hollow nano/sub-microsphere
cathode materials are calcined at 800, 900, 950, and 1000 °C.
Among them, Li1.2Mn0.54Ni0.13Co0.13O2 calcined at 950 °C exhibits a high discharge
capacity (277 mAh g–1 at 0.1C rate) and excellent
capacity retention (88%) after 50 cycles and also delivers an excellent
discharge capacity of >172 mAh g–1 at 5C rate. Good
electrochemical performance of Li1.2Mn0.54Ni0.13Co0.13O2-950 is directly related
to the optimized size of its primary particles (85 nm) (which constitute
the spherical secondary particle, ∼720 nm) and homogeneous
cation mixing. Higher calcination temperature (≥950 °C)
leads to an increase of the primary particle size, poor cycling stability,
and inferior rate capacity of Li1.2Mn0.54Ni0.13Co0.13O2 due to smashing of quasi-hollow
spheres upon repeated lithium ion intercalations/deintercalations.
Therefore, Li1.2Mn0.54Ni0.13Co0.13O2-950 is a promising electrode for the next-generation
high-voltage and high-capacity Li-ion battery application.
Developing a highly stable and non-precious, low-cost, bifunctional electrocatalyst is essential for energy storage and energy conversion devices due to the increasing demand from the consumers. Therefore, the fabrication of a bifunctional electrocatalyst is an emerging focus for the promotion and dissemination of energy storage/conversion devices. Spinel and perovskite transition metal oxides have been widely explored as efficient bifunctional electrocatalysts to replace the noble metals in fuel cell and metal-air batteries. In this work, we developed a bifunctional catalyst for oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reaction (ORR/OER) study using the mechanochemical route coupling of cobalt oxide nano/microspheres and carbon black particles incorporated lanthanum manganite perovskite (LaMnO3@C-Co3O4) composite. It was synthesized through a simple and less-time consuming solid-state ball-milling method. The synthesized LaMnO3@C-Co3O4 composite was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis, X-ray diffraction spectroscopy, and micro-Raman spectroscopy techniques. The electrocatalysis results showed excellent electrochemical activity towards ORR/OER kinetics using LaMnO3@C-Co3O4 catalyst, as compared with Pt/C, bare LaMnO3@C, and LaMnO3@C-RuO2 catalysts. The observed results suggested that the newly developed LaMnO3@C-Co3O4 electrocatalyst can be used as a potential candidate for air-cathodes in fuel cell and metal-air batteries.
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