Beneficial effect of phase transition on kinetics of deintercalation/intercalation process in lithium-manganese spinel

In this work, a detailed characterization of LixMn2O4 spinel oxides is shown to demonstrate the correlation between the anomalous thermoelectric properties of this cathode material and its crystal and electronic structure. The analysis of structural and transport in LixMn2O4 cathode materials obtained by solid-state reaction and sol-gel method allows formulating a conclusion that the performance of manganese spinel-based cathode depends on the occurrence of anomalous electron effects. The recorded maxima in absolute values of thermoelectric power correspond to high diffusivity of electrons at the Fermi level. A correlation between the occurrence of thermoelectric peaks and effectiveness of deintercalation/intercalation of lithium has been shown. The obtained results indicate a beneficial effect of phase transition on electrochemical properties of lithium-manganese spinel cathode material.