Physical characteristics and electrochemical performance of nanostructured LiMn2-xTixO4 cathode material / Nur Farhana Yahya

Spinel compounds are being investigated extensively due to their promising properties
in replacing the commercially used layered cathode material. This is due to its
abundance, less toxic nature and low-cost production. However, spinel compound,
LiMn2O4 is unstable and suffer from severe capacity fading. Partial substitution of
titanium, Ti, with manganese might overcome this problem. In this work, spinel LiMn2-
xTixO4 (x = 0.05, 0.1, 0.2) via a novel self-propagating combustion synthesis and its
electrochemical properties are investigated. Simultaneous Thermogravimetric Analysis
(STA), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy
(FESEM were used to characterize all the materials. The characterization of all samples
show pure and single-phase spinel cubic structured materials obtained at 700 ̊C and
850 ̊C for 24 h and 48 h annealing duration with a polyhedral like morphology. The
EDX results which give the atomic percent for each sample were found to be agreeable
to the calculated synthesized values. The effect of the physical characteristics of the
cathode material on the electrochemical performances of the battery were elaborated in
this study. The material LiMn1.9Ti0.1O4 annealed at 850 ̊C for 24 h and 48 h has the
best specific capacity of 112 mAhg-1 in the first cycle, showing potential as good cathode material.