Structural and electrochemical properties of aluminium doped LiMn2O4 cathode materials for Li battery: Experimental and ab initio calculations

Abstract Pristine and Al-doped lithium manganese oxide (LiAl x Mn 2− x O 4 ) spinel cathode materials were successfully synthesized by combustion method using urea as reducer and fuel. The structural and electrochemical properties of the as-synthesized powders were characterized using scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, energy dispersive spectroscopy and charge/discharge testing. The effect of aluminium doping on the discharge capacity was studied for different aluminium concentration x  = 0, 0.05, 0.1 and 0.5. The as-synthesized Al doped samples LiAl 0.05 Mn 1.95 O 4 and LiAl 0.1 Mn 1.9 O 4 exhibited higher discharge capacity for the first two cycles compared to the first cycle discharge capacity of pristine LiMn 2 O 4 . The first-principles calculations predict an increase in lattice parameter for x  = 0.05 and 0.1 to be responsible for the increase in first cycle discharge capacity for x  = 0.05 and 0.1. In addition, we have found that LiAl 0.5 Mn 1.5 O 4 sample exhibited the more stable capacity than the other samples.

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