The Effects of Incorporated Sn in Resynthesized Ni-Rich Cathode Materials on Their Lithium-Ion Battery Performance

Abstract

LiNi x Co y Mn z (NCM), one of the most promising candidates for high-capacity cathode materials in Li-ion batteries (LIBs), is synthesized with various amounts of Sn. Sn-incorporated NCM from the resynthesis of NMC in leach liquor containing Sn from spent LIBs is characterized by scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, particle strength tests, and electrochemical tests. Sn-incorporated NCM has a globular form, and the uniform distribution of Sn inside cathode materials is confirmed. As Sn is introduced, the (003) diffraction peak tends to shift to a smaller angle and particle breaking strength increases. It is found that Sn-incorporated cathode active materials have better cycle performance and rate capability than pristine cathode active material although the discharge capacity slightly decreases. Because there is a trade-off between decreased discharge capacity and improved cycling and rate performance, the incorporation of Sn in resynthesized NCM should be carefully designed and conducted.

Effect of Residual Trace Amounts of Fe and Al in Li[Ni1/3Mn1/3Co1/3]O2 Cathode Active Material for the Sustainable Recycling of Lithium-Ion Batteries

“…Accordingly, the trace amount of impurities that are not fully eliminated from the leachate are incorporated during the co-precipitation for the direct regeneration of cathode active materials and affect the electrochemical performance of the resynthesized cathode active materials. In our previous study, the effects of impurity elements including iron, aluminum, tin, lithium, copper, and sodium were investigated individually at impurity levels [10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. It was reported that Li[Ni 1/3 Mn 1/3 Co 1/3 ]O 2 (NMC) containing trace amounts of Fe or Al via co-precipitation showed better LIB performance in terms of cyclability and rate capability compared to a pristine sample [10][11][12].…”

Valuable Metal Recycling

“…The preparation of petroleum liquid catalyst [11], Sn-incorporated LiNi x Co y Mn z (NCM) [12], Ni nanosized powder [13] was investigated using leach liquor of a lithium ion battery (LIB). Joo et al [11] introduced a comprehensive recycling process, which included physical separation, leaching, solvent extraction and stripping, to prepare CMB (cobalt-manganese-bromide) and CMA (cobalt-manganese-acetate) liquid catalysts as petroleum liquid catalysts from the cathode materials of spent lithium ion batteries.…”

“…Joo et al [11] introduced a comprehensive recycling process, which included physical separation, leaching, solvent extraction and stripping, to prepare CMB (cobalt-manganese-bromide) and CMA (cobalt-manganese-acetate) liquid catalysts as petroleum liquid catalysts from the cathode materials of spent lithium ion batteries. Kang et al [12] investigated the effect of Sn impurity on the LIB performance of Ni-rich NCM, resynthesized from leach liquor of spent LIB by conducting analyses such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) mapping, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Shin et al [13] investigated the fabrication of Ni nanosized powder from cathode active material, such as LiNiO 2 (LNO), as found in spent lithium ion batteries through a reduction with hydrazine monohydrate.…”

Improving the electrochemical performances using a V-doped Ni-rich NCM cathode

“…Among them, doping is an effective strategy to improve stability of layered structure because the dopant ions help suppression of the phase transition and the voltage fading. So far, lots of single dopants have been explored such as Al 10 , Ti 11 , Zr 12 , Mg 13 , Mo 14 , Na 15 , Sn 16 , B 17 , Fe 18 and Cr 19 to improve the electrochemical performance of layered cathode materials. Vanadium was also studied as one of the dopant by many researchers because vanadium can take various valence state, leading to the stability of the crystal and increase of Li-ion diffusion coefficient 20–23 .…”