Significant improvement of electrochemical performance of Cu-coated LiVPO4F cathode material for lithium-ion batteries

In this paper, we reveal that the intrinsic low electronic conductivity of the pristine LiVPO4F is overcome with conductive Cu-coating. The existence of nano-Cu is confirmed with X-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The morphology and particle size are observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Galvanostatic charge/discharge test indicates that Cu coating is effective to improve the discharge capacity, cycle performance and rate capability. Analysis of electrochemical impedance spectra (EIS) shows that the addition of nano-Cu markedly decreases the charge transfer resistance of the pristine LiVPO4F electrode.