Metastable Li1+δMn2O4 (0 ≤ δ ≤ 1) Spinel Phases Revealed by in Operando Neutron Diffraction and First-Principles Calculations

Autor: Jinseon Park, Gabriel M. Veith, Jue Liu, Melanie J. Kirkham, Pamela S. Whitfield, Ashfia Huq, Mina Yoon, Bohang Song
Rok vydání: 2018
Předmět:
Zdroj: Chemistry of Materials. 31:124-134
ISSN: 1520-5002
0897-4756
DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.8b03199
Popis: In this work, we examine the reaction mechanisms driven by the lithiation of Li1+δMn2O4 (0 ≤ δ ≤ 1) spinels via in operando neutron powder diffraction (NPD). New reaction mechanisms are proposed involving solid-solution regions within both cubic and tetragonal spinel phases in addition to a continuous phase transition between them. In operando NPD is an ideal tool to follow the light elements such as lithium and oxygen in cathode materials which are often the key to fully understand their structural evolutions. Here, we report a novel methodology to prepare an extremely thick electrode with ∼378 mg·cm–2 loading density suitable for the in operando NPD studies. Enabled by such thick electrode, we find that the metal oxygen M–O (M = Li and Mn) bond lengths in both end members LiMn2O4 and Li2Mn2O4 experience pronounced changes larger than dictated by the change in lattice parameters because of the locally formed Jahn–Teller distorted Mn3+. First-principles density functional theory calculations confirm these...
Databáze: OpenAIRE