Lithiated Zeolite as Additives for Low-Cost Positive Electrode

For low-cost positive electrode chemistry, including lithium manganese oxide (LMO) and its mixture with high capacity lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC), such as NMC532 blended with LMO, transition metal dissolution potentially compromises battery cycle life. Here the benefits of using lithium-ion exchanged zeolite (Li-zeolite) are demonstrated on mitigating transitional metal dissolution and improving the cycling performance for batteries particularly at high temperature. Adopted as an additive to cathode electrodes through mixing or coating, Li-zeolite has shown the improved cycle life. Postmortem analysis through X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and electron probe micro-analyzer (EPMA) further clarifies the functions of Li-zeolite in batteries and advises it future development. While the efforts on further optimization of electrode quality and increasing loading for desirable energy density is ongoing, the processes and results reported in this work provide a simple and practical route to enhance the performance for LMO and LMO blended electrodes. The application of Li-zeolite is envisioned as a low-cost and scalable path which can be potentially implemented in electrode manufacturing.