Synthesis of solid NMC622 particles by spray drying, post-annealing and lithiation

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Volume Title

A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä

Date

2023-10

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Mcode

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Language

en

Pages

12

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Advanced Powder Technology, Volume 34, issue 10

Abstract

Layered lithium-nickel-manganese-cobalt oxide (NMC) cathode materials are widely used in Li-ion batteries that require high energy densities, such as those used in plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and electric vehicles (EVs). Here we studied the synthesis of NMC622 particles by spray pyrolysis, which is a simple one-step process for production of spherical particles. However, synthesising NMC powder using spray pyrolysis has a tendency to produce hollow NMC particles. To gain insight into the mechanism behind the formation of the hollow particles, one dimensional numerical simulation of the physical and chemical phenomena taking place during spray drying were carried out. The effects of several process parameters, including drying air temperature, drying air mass flow rate, and liquid feed mass flow rate, on the evaporation and particle formation process were studied. The increased evaporation rate at higher temperatures was found to result in crust formation on the droplet surface during the particle formation, and thus, in lower solid volume fractions in the dried particles. However, by optimizing the process parameters production of solid NMC622 sulphate particles by spray drying was achieved. The produced NMC622 sulphate particles were then oxidised and lithiated in air at 850 °C via the conventional thermal treatment process. Four lithium precursors, LiOH, Li2CO3, Li2SO4 and LiNO3, were tested for the lithiation of the oxidized NMC particles. The degree of lithiation and the crystalline phase of the powders were determined using ICP-OES and XRD, respectively.

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Funding Information: The research leading to these results has received funding from Business Finland BatCircle and BatCircle2 projects (5867/31/2018 and 44836/31/2020), Umicore Finland Oy and University of Eastern Finland. We kindly thank Mrs. Virpi Miettinen of SIB Labs for the help during the EM specimen cross-sectioning method development. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 Society of Powder Technology Japan

Keywords

NMC622 cathode material, NMC622 oxide lithiation, Non-hollow particles, Spray drying

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Citation

Ihalainen, M, Kortelainen, M, Mesceriakovas, A, Karhunen, T, Mesceriakove, S M, Lindberg, D, Leskinen, J T T, Kankaanpää, T, Jokiniemi, J & Lähde, A 2023, ' Synthesis of solid NMC622 particles by spray drying, post-annealing and lithiation ', Advanced Powder Technology, vol. 34, no. 10, 104187 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apt.2023.104187