Grain binding derived reinforced interfacial mechanical behavior of Ni-rich layered cathode materials

The fragmentation caused by cracks spreading along grain boundaries seriously deteriorates the cycling performance of high nickel (Ni ≥ 90%) layered cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). In this study, heterogeneous nucleation was utilized to epitaxially grow LiNbO3 layer onto LiNi0.90Co0.05Mn0.05O2 (NCM90). Importantly, the LiNbO3 layer was compatible with the highly reactive surface of NCM90. The formation process of LiNbO3 solid embryos was calculated and discussed based on crystal solidification theory, and the distribution of solid embryos revealed thin zone crystallization and aggregation zone grain pinning. More interestingly, the surface stiffness and surface Young's modulus of the NCM90 were significantly enhanced, and the grain movement (fragmentation) caused by the non-uniform contraction of the unit cell was bound correspondingly at high cut-off voltages. Originating from the binding effect of the coating layer, the value of surface hoop internal stress of NCM90 decreased by 22.88% to inhibit the cracking and reduce the loss of NCM90 during cycling. At the potential range of 3.0–4.3 V at 50 mA g−1, the specific discharge capacity of the optimized NCM90 increased from 109.3 mAh g−1 to 147.4 mAh g−1 after 200 cycles. It is believed that this study provides a simple, convenient but effective strategy to restrain the fragmentation of high nickel layered cathode materials for LIBs.