Rapid Microwave-Assisted Solvothermal Synthesis of Non-Olivine Cmcm Polymorphs of LiMPO4 (M = Mn, Fe, Co, and Ni) at Low Temperature and Pressure.

Lithium transition-metal phosphates, LiMPO4 (M = Mn, Fe, Co, and Ni), have attracted significant research interest over the past two decades as an important class of lithium ion battery cathode materials. However, almost all of the investigations thus far have focused on the olivine polymorph that exists in the orthorhombic Pnma space group. In this study, a distinct orthorhombic but non-olivine polymorph of LiMPO4, described by a Cmcm space group symmetry, has been synthesized with M = Mn, Fe, Co, and Ni. Of these, LiMnPO4 in the Cmcm space group is reported for the first time. A rapid microwave-assisted solvothermal (MW-ST) heating process with tetraethylene glycol (TEG) as the solvent and transition-metal oxalates as precursors facilitates the synthesis of these materials. The peak reaction temperatures and pressures were below 300 °C and 30 bar, respectively, which are several orders of magnitude lower than those of the previously reported high-pressure (gigapascals) method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) confirms the crystal structure with the Cmcm space group, and scanning electron micrographs indicate a submicrometer thin platelet-like morphology. The synthesis process conditions have been optimized to obtain impurity-free samples with the correct stoichiometry, as characterized by XRD and inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). Upon heat treatment to higher temperatures, an irreversible transformation of the metastable Cmcm polymorphs into olivine is observed by XRD and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Although the electrochemical activity of these polymorphs as lithium ion cathodes turns out to be poor, the facile synthesis under mild conditions has permitted easy access to these materials in a nanomorphology, some of which were not even possible before.