Research progress of porous lithium iron phosphate

Abstract:

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are efficient and clean energy storage devices, and are promising for various applications such as consumer electronic products, energy storage facilities and electric vehicles, etc, which are significant to relieve the energy crisis and environmental pollution. Olivine lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) is one of the most promising positive electrode material for LIBs. However, the intrinsically low electronic conductivity and lithium ion diffusion velocity result in poor performance of LiFePO4 and block its large-scale commercialization application for power LIBs. Nano-structured morphology control is believed to be an effective modification method to improve the rate performance of LiFePO4, nevertheless, LiFePO4 nanoparticles display some disadvantages such as high surface energy, easy to agglomeration and fast specific capacity degradation, etc. Studies in recent years demonstrate that the three dimensional porous LiFePO4 combines both advantages of nano- and micro-sized active materials, which is the research hotspot and important development direction of LiFePO4 materials. In this review, we systematically summarize the reseach progress of porous LiFePO4 materials from the aspects of synthesis methods, morphologies and structure, electrochemical performances, and the relationship between structure and performance, and outlook the future developments of porous LiFePO4 materials.

Key words:LiFePO4; Porous materials; Lithium-ion batteries