Excess lithium storage in LiFePO4-Carbon interface by ball-milling

As one of the most popular cathode materials for high power lithium ion batteries (LIBs) of the electrical-vehicle (EV), lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4(LFP)) is limited to its relatively lower theoretical specific capacity of 170mAh g-1. To break the limits and further improve the capacity of LFP is promising but challenging. In this study, the ball-milling method is applied to the mixture of LFP and carbon, and the effective capacity larger than the theoretical one by 30mAh g-1 is achieved. It is demonstrated that ball-milling leads to the LFP-Carbon interface to store the excess Li-ions. © 2016 World Scientific Publishing Company.