Micromixer-Assisted Co-Precipitation Method for Fast Synthesis of Layered Ni-Rich Materials for Lithium-Ion Batteries

Uniform element distribution is a key factor that influences the performance of Ni-rich cathode materials. Herein, the Ni-rich LiNi_0.8Co_0.1Mn_0.1O₂ cathode material has been synthesized with the assistance of a micromixer, which provides ultrafast and homogeneous mixing environments to endow the products with uniform composition distribution. As-prepared LiNi_0.8Co_0.1Mn_0.1O₂ delivered a high initial discharge capacity of 188.5 mAh g⁻¹ at a 0.2 C rate with a 4.3 V cut-off potential and reached 95.4 % capacity retention after 50 cycles. LiNi_0.6Co_0.2Mn_0.2O₂ and LiNi_0.9Co_0.1O₂ synthesized through this method also exhibited reasonable electrochemical performances, which indicates the feasibility of this novel micromixer-assisted co-precipitation method in the synthesis of layered cathode materials. Moreover, the reaction time had been reduced from 12 h to only seconds with the assistance of the micromixers when compared to the traditional co-precipitation method.