Yttrium-doped LiMn2O4 spheres with long cycle life as Lithium-Ion Battery Cathode

Lithium manganese oxide (LiMn2O4) is one of the most promising material as lithium-ion battery cathodes owing to its significant advantages such as nontoxicity and low cost at present. However, LiMn2O4 exhibits insufficient cycling stability in practical application, which is an urgent problem to be figured out. In order to overcome this shortcoming, a facile method is presented which synthesized a yttrium-doped spherical LiMn2O4 whose diameter is about 5–6 μm using cubic MnCO3 precursors. The doped LiMn2O4 samples were investigated by XRD and SEM, which indicated that the spherical LiYxMn2−xO4 is a porous structure composed of LiYxMn2−xO4 nanoparticles with an average size of about 60–80 nm. The LiYxMn2−xO4 shows an excellent cycling performance when x = 0.01. At the current density of 1C (1C = 140 mAh g−1), LiYxMn2−xO4 shows a discharge specific capacity of 120 mAh g−1 at 1C with a specific capacity retention of 96% after 650 cycles.