Chemical delithiation and exfoliation of [Formula: see text]

Angelika Basch; Liliana de Campo; Jörg H Albering; John W White

doi:10.1016/j.jssc.2014.08.011

Chemical delithiation and exfoliation of [Formula: see text]

J Solid State Chem. 2014 Dec:220:102-110. doi: 10.1016/j.jssc.2014.08.011.

Authors

Angelika Basch^{1

2}, Liliana de Campo³, Jörg H Albering⁴, John W White⁵

Affiliations

¹ Center of Sustainable Energy Systems, The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia.
² Institute of Physics, University of Graz, A-8010 Graz, Austria.
³ Applied Mathematics, The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia.
⁴ Graz University of Technology, A-8010 Graz, Austria.
⁵ Research School of Chemistry, The Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia.

Abstract

Progressive chemical .delithiation of commercially available lithium cobalt oxide ([Formula: see text]) showed consecutive changes in the crystal properties. Rietveld refinement of high resolution X-ray and neutron diffraction revealed an increased lattice parameter c and a reduced lattice parameter a for chemically delithiated samples. Using electron microscopy we have also followed the changes in the texture of the samples towards what we have found is a critical layer stoichiometry of about [Formula: see text] with x=1/3 that causes the grains to exfoliate. The pattern of etches by delithiation suggests that unrelieved strain fields may produce chemical activity.

Keywords: Chemical delithiation; Intercalation; Li-ion Battery; Neutron diffraction; Rietveld refinement.