Effect of Alcohol Addition on the Microstructure of Olivine Material by Hydrothermal Synthesis

Abstract

Olivine materials, well-known as a Co-free cathode materials for lithium ion battery, were synthesized by the hydrothermal reaction with the addition of various alcohols in order to control their microstructure. As-synthesized olivine products were characterized by XRD, SEM observation, particle size distribution analysis, and TG-DTA analysis. For olivine products synthesized without alcohol addition, the microstructure was the mixture of plate-like particles and fine particles. On the other hand, in case of hydrothermal synthesis with ethanol as a solvent into H₂O, obtained products had the microstructure of submicron-sized spheres composed of 10~50 nm nanoparticles. In addition, products synthesized with an alcohol consisted of finer and uniformly sized particle. It was found that the particle size, size distribution and microstructure depended on the kinds of alcohol. Furthermore, TG analysis results showed that the adsorption water of the products synthesized with an alcohol addition was less than that with no alcohol.