Mesoporous Spinel LiMn₂O₄ Cathode Material by a Soft-templating Route

A facile soft-templating method has been successfully developed to prepare mesoporous spinel LiMn₂O₄ with high crystallinity. The cathode material with narrow pore size distributions significantly enhances charge transfer and reduces lithium ion diffusion length. The mesoporous LiMn₂O₄ deliver initial discharge capacity of 133.6 mAh/g in at a current density of 74 mAh/g. After 100 cycles, discharge capacity maintains 109.1 mAh/g. At a high current density of 296 mAh/g, the mesoporous LiMn₂O₄ has a high discharge capacity around 102 mAh/g. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) testing showed that the mesoporous LiMn₂O₄ has a higher Li-ion diffusion coefficient (D_Li) than bulk LiMn₂O₄. Furthermore, LiMn₂O₄//graphite full-cell is fabricated. It also exhibits good cycling capability with specific capacity of ∼90 mAh/g after 40 charge/discharge cycles.