Effects of Synthesis Conditions of NaMnO Precursor on the Electrochemical Performance of Reduced LiMnO Cathode Materials for Lithium-Ion Batteries.

LiMnO nanobelts have been synthesized via the molten salt method that used the NaMnO nanobelts as both the manganese source and precursor template in LiNO-LiCl eutectic molten salt. The electrochemical properties of LiMnO reduced via a low-temperature reduction process as cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries have been measured and compared. Particularly investigated in this work are the effects of the synthesis conditions, such as reaction temperature, molten salt contents, and reaction time on the morphology and particle size of the synthesized NaMnO precursor. Through repeated synthesis characterizations of the NaMnO precursor, and comparing the electrochemical properties of the reduced LiMnO nanobelts, the optimum conditions for the best electrochemical performance of the reduced LiMnO are determined to be a molten salt reaction temperature of 850 °C and a molten salt amount of 25 g. When charge-discharged at 0.1 C (1 C = 200 mAh g) with a voltage window between 2.0 and 4.8 V, the reduced LiMnO synthesized with reaction temperature of NaMnO precursor at 850 °C and molten salt amounts of 25 g exhibits the best rate performance and cycling performance. This work develops a new strategy to prepare manganese-based cathode materials with special morphology.