High-capacity long-cycle nickel-cobalt-manganese ternary cathode material and preparation method thereof
Technical Field
The invention belongs to the field of lithium ion battery anode materials, and particularly relates to a high-capacity long-cycle nickel-cobalt-manganese ternary anode material and a preparation method thereof.
Background
The lithium ion battery plays more and more important roles in our daily life, and provides great convenience for our life from 3C digital products to electric automobiles. It is a pursuit of the entire new energy industry to develop batteries with lower cost, higher energy density, and longer cycle life.
The nickel-cobalt-manganese ternary cathode material is a novel high-energy-density lithium ion battery material and has the advantages of low raw material cost, high compaction density and high energy density. Generally, the size of the crystal grain needs to be controlled in the process of preparing the nickel-cobalt-manganese ternary cathode material, and the crystal grain with better performance ranges from 200nm to 300nm. The sintering temperature is too low, the grain size is smaller than the range, and the obtained material has poor crystallinity; if the sintering temperature is too high and the grain size is larger than the range, the material obtained by overburning is partially monocrystalline and the performance is reduced. In addition, the capacity and the cycle are balanced in the grain size interval, and the lower the sintering temperature is, the poorer the crystallinity is, the smaller the grain size is, the lower the capacity is, but the lower the stress is, and the obtained cathode material has better cyclicity. The higher the sintering temperature, the better the crystallinity of the obtained cathode material, and the higher the capacity, but the larger the grain size, the larger the stress, and the poor cycle performance. According to the existing sintering process, a trade-off needs to be made between capacity and cycle performance, and the finally sintered positive electrode material is difficult to have better capacity and cycle performance.
Disclosure of Invention
The invention provides a high-capacity long-cycle nickel-cobalt-manganese ternary cathode material and a preparation method thereof, which aim to solve the problem that the ternary nickel-cobalt-manganese ternary cathode material in the background technology cannot simultaneously give consideration to better capacity and cycle performance.
In order to solve the technical problems, the technical scheme provided by the invention is as follows:
a high-capacity long-cycle nickel-cobalt-manganese ternary cathode material is disclosed, wherein the grain size of the ternary cathode material is 200-300 nm; the residual stress of the ternary cathode material is 0.15-0.3. The residual stress is obtained by X-ray diffraction method test and fine modification, wherein the XRD test adopts German Brookfield (D8 ADVANCE), the scanning range is more than or equal to 10 degrees and less than or equal to 2 theta and less than or equal to 80 degrees, the scanning speed is 5 degrees/min, topas fine modification software is adopted, and a Pawley full-spectrum fitting method adopts each Ik as a fine modification parameter, the diffraction peak position is calculated by a unit cell parameter, and a peak shape function and a peak continuation range are specified; meanwhile, zero point correction is carried out, and the cell parameters and the peak shape parameters are refined at the same time. The residual stress referred to in the specification is measured and calculated according to the method.
Preferably, the grain size of the ternary cathode material is 250 nm-280 nm; the residual stress of the ternary cathode material is 0.20-0.25, and the capacity and the cycle performance of the ternary cathode material can be further improved in the range.
Preferably, the molecular formula of the ternary cathode material is Li a Ni b Co c Mn d O 2 Wherein a is more than or equal to 0.95 and less than or equal to 1.05, b is more than or equal to 0.3 and less than or equal to 1, c is more than or equal to 0.1 and less than or equal to 0.3, and d is more than or equal to 0.1 and less than or equal to 0.3.
In the ternary positive electrode material, the median diameter D50 of the ternary positive electrode material is preferably 7 to 15 μm. More preferably, D50 is 9 to 12 μm.
Preferably, the shape of the primary particles of the ternary cathode material is long or irregular square, and more preferably long.
As a general inventive concept, the present invention also provides a method for preparing the ternary cathode material, comprising the steps of:
(1) Mixing a ternary positive electrode material precursor and a lithium source according to a stoichiometric ratio; the molar ratio of the lithium source to the ternary precursor is 1.01-1.12;
(2) Sintering the mixture obtained in the step (1) at a high temperature; the high-temperature sintering comprises a first stage of sintering and a second stage of sintering, and the sintering temperature of the first stage is 5-20 ℃ higher than that of the second stage; above 20 c, the sintering temperature of the whole high-temperature sintering section is low, which is not favorable for grain growth.
(3) And cooling and sieving the sintered material to obtain the high-capacity long-circulation nickel-cobalt-manganese ternary cathode material.
In the preparation method, the temperature of the first stage sintering in the step (2) is preferably 850-950 ℃.
In the preparation method, in the step (2), the time for the first-stage sintering and the time for the second-stage sintering are both 2 hours to 10 hours. Further preferably, the time for the first stage sintering and the second stage sintering is 4 h-8 h.
In the preparation method, preferably, in the step (2), the mixture is further subjected to heat preservation treatment before high-temperature sintering, and the heat preservation treatment includes a first heat preservation stage and a second heat preservation stage.
In the preparation method, preferably, the temperature of the first heat preservation stage is 400-600 ℃, and the time is 3-5 h; the temperature of the second heat preservation stage is 600-800 ℃, and the time is 1-3 h; and the temperature of the first heat preservation stage is lower than that of the second heat preservation stage.
In the preparation method, preferably, in the step (1), the lithium source is one or more of lithium carbonate, lithium nitrate, lithium hydroxide, lithium oxide, lithium acetate and lithium oxalate, and the particle diameter D50 of the ternary cathode material precursor is 5 to 200nm. More preferably, the D50 is 50 to 100nm.
Compared with the prior art, the invention has the advantages that:
(1) The grain size of the ternary cathode material is 200-300 nm, the residual stress is 0.15-0.3, and the ternary cathode material with the residual stress in the range can ensure that the battery has better capacity and cycle performance.
(2) In the preparation method, the sintering process is optimized, two sintering stages with temperature difference are arranged in the high-temperature sintering stage, the temperature of the front high-temperature sintering stage is relatively higher, the crystallinity of the material can be improved, the capacity of the material is effectively improved, the temperature of the rear high-temperature sintering stage is relatively lower, the internal stress of the material can be reduced, and the material is ensured to have good cycle performance.
(3) The preparation method is simple, and the cycle performance and the capacity of the anode material can be obviously improved without adding other doping elements or coating during secondary sintering.
(4) The preparation method of the invention has the advantages that the high-temperature sintering stage is carried out in a segmented manner, and the sintering temperature of the second stage is relatively low, so that the internal stress of the material can be reduced, and the energy consumption can be reduced.
Drawings
FIG. 1 is an FE-SEM photograph (magnification: 10000 times) of a positive electrode material obtained in example 1 according to the present invention.
Fig. 2 is a XRD diffraction pattern of the positive electrode material of the present invention obtained in example 1.
Fig. 3 is a particle size distribution diagram of the positive electrode material obtained in example 1 according to the present invention.
FIG. 4 is an FE-SEM photograph (magnification: 10000 times) of the positive electrode material obtained in comparative example 1 according to the present invention.
Fig. 5 is a XRD diffraction pattern of the positive electrode material according to the present invention obtained in comparative example 1.
FIG. 6 is a plot of the capacitance-on-temperature cycle for examples 1 and 2 of the present invention and comparative examples 1, 2 and 3, wherein: the charge-discharge multiplying power is 1C, and the voltage window is 3.0-4.3V.
Detailed Description
In order to facilitate an understanding of the invention, the invention will be described more fully and in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and preferred embodiments, but the scope of the invention is not limited to the specific embodiments below.
Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention.
Unless otherwise specifically indicated, various raw materials, reagents, instruments, equipment and the like used in the present invention are commercially available or can be prepared by existing methods.
Example 1:
the invention relates to a high-capacity long-cycle nickel-cobalt-manganese ternary positive electrode material (LiNi) 0.52 Co 0.20 Mn 0.28 O 2 ) The grain size is 255.1nm, the residual stress is 0.220 after the test and the refinement by an X-ray diffraction method, and the D50 of the ternary cathode material is 9.4 mu m.
The preparation method of the high-capacity long-cycle ternary nickel-cobalt-manganese cathode material of the embodiment comprises the following steps:
(1) Weighing 4.8kg of ternary precursor Ni according to the proportion of 1.04 of the nickel-cobalt-manganese precursor (D50 is 9.5 mu m) to 1.04 of lithium metal in lithium carbonate 0.52 Co 0.20 Mn 0.28 (OH) 2 And 2.2kg of lithium carbonate;
(2) Adding the materials weighed in the step (1) into a small-sized high-speed mixer, mixing for 5min at the rotating speed of 500rpm, and mixing for 15min at the rotating speed of 1000 rpm;
(3) Carrying out heat preservation and high-temperature sintering on the mixture obtained in the step (2) in an air 10M furnace, wherein the flow of the air atmosphere is 1.5M 3 The temperature preservation and high-temperature sintering procedure is room temperature → 500 ℃/4h → 700 ℃/2h → 890 ℃/6h → 875 ℃/8h, in particularComprises the following steps: firstly, heating the furnace temperature from room temperature to 500 ℃, preserving heat for 4h, then heating to 700 ℃, and preserving heat for 2h; heating to 890 ℃ to perform first-stage high-temperature sintering, wherein the time of the first-stage high-temperature sintering is 6h, and then cooling to 875 ℃ to perform second-stage high-temperature sintering, wherein the time of the second-stage high-temperature sintering is 8h; naturally cooling to room temperature after high-temperature sintering; the temperature rise rate in the whole temperature rise process is about 3 ℃/min;
(4) And (3) after the sintered material obtained in the step (3) is screened by a 300-mesh screen to remove oversize materials, universal grinding is carried out for 5s, and a material with the D50 of 9.4 mu m, namely the high-capacity long-cycle ternary nickel-cobalt-manganese anode material is obtained, wherein an electron microscope photo of the material is shown in figure 1, an XRD diffraction curve diagram is shown in figure 2, and a particle size distribution diagram is shown in figure 3.
Example 2:
the invention relates to a high-capacity long-cycle ternary cathode material (LiNi) 0.52 Co 0.20 Mn 0.28 O 2 ) The grain size of the ternary cathode material is 282nm, the residual stress after the ternary cathode material is tested and refined by an X-ray diffraction method is 0.229, and the D50 of the ternary cathode material is 9.6 mu m.
The preparation method of this example is substantially the same as that of example 1, except that the high-temperature sintering temperature of the second stage of step (3) is different, and the sintering procedure of step (3) of this example is as follows: room temperature → 500 ℃/4h → 700 ℃/2h → 890 ℃/6h → 880 ℃/8h.
Comparative example 1:
ternary cathode material (LiNi) of this comparative example 0.52 Co 0.20 Mn 0.28 O 2 ) The grain size is 302.0nm, the residual stress is 0.473 after the grain size is tested and refined by an X-ray diffraction method, the D50 of the ternary cathode material is 9.5 mu m, the electron microscope photo of the ternary cathode material is shown in figure 4, and the XRD diffraction graph is shown in figure 5. I (003)/I (104) in fig. 2 (example 1) is 1.16, whereas I (003)/I (104) =1.14 in fig. 5 (comparative example), I (003)/I (104) in fig. 2 being higher than I (003)/I (104) in fig. 5, indicating that the layered structure of example 1 is more complete.
The preparation method of the comparative example is basically the same as that of example 1, except that the high-temperature sintering mode of the step (3) is different, the high-temperature sintering in two stages is not carried out, and the sintering schedule of the comparative example is as follows: room temperature → 500 ℃/4h → 700 ℃/2h → 890 ℃/14h.
Comparative example 2:
ternary cathode material (LiNi) of this comparative example 0.52 Co 0.20 Mn 0.28 O 2 ) The grain size of the ternary positive electrode material is 285.0nm, the residual stress of the ternary positive electrode material after the ternary positive electrode material is tested and refined by an X-ray diffraction method is 0.424, and the D50 of the ternary positive electrode material is 9.5 mu m.
The preparation method of the comparative example is basically the same as that of example 1, except that the high-temperature sintering manner of step (3) is different, and the high-temperature sintering in two stages is not carried out, and the sintering schedule of the comparative example is as follows: room temperature → 500 ℃/4h → 700 ℃/2h → 880 ℃/14h.
Comparative example 3:
ternary cathode material (LiNi) of this comparative example 0.52 Co 0.20 Mn 0.28 O 2 ) The grain size is 274.0nm, the residual stress is 0.357 after the test and the refinement by the X-ray diffraction method, and the D50 of the ternary cathode material is 9.4 mu m.
The preparation method of the comparative example is basically the same as that of example 1, except that the high-temperature sintering mode of the step (3) is different, the high-temperature sintering in two stages is not carried out, and the sintering schedule of the comparative example is as follows: room temperature → 500 ℃/4h → 700 ℃/2h → 875 ℃/14h.
And (4) performance testing:
the ternary positive electrode materials prepared in examples 1 and 2 and comparative examples 1, 2 and 3, acetylene black and PVDF were uniformly mixed in a mass ratio of 90. A2032 type button cell is assembled by the prepared pole pieces in a vacuum glove box by taking a metal lithium piece as a negative pole, the cell is stood for 10 hours and then is subjected to 0.1C first charge-discharge capacity test, 0.2/0.5/1/2C multiplying power test and 1C @ 100-week cycle test in a voltage window of 3.0-4.3V, and the performance test results are shown in figure 6 and table 1.
TABLE 1 Performance of ternary cathode materials for each example and comparative example for button cell
As can be seen from the table 1, the crystal grain size of the ternary cathode material is controlled to be 200-300 nm, the residual stress is controlled to be 0.15-0.3, and the battery can be ensured to have better capacity and cycle performance; meanwhile, two constant temperature sections with temperature difference are required to be designed in the sintering process of preparing the ternary cathode material, the sintering temperature is high before and low after, the front high-temperature constant temperature section can promote the growth of crystal grains, the structural integrity is improved, the material is ensured to have higher capacity, and the rear high-temperature constant temperature section can effectively reduce the residual stress of the material and improve the cycle performance of the material.