Dual-component LixTiO2@silica functional coating in one layer for performance enhanced LiNi0.6Co0.2Mn0.2O2 cathode

Surface modification is an effective strategy to address the critical issues of Ni-rich LiNi1-x-yCoxMnyO2 (NCM) cathode material, including fast energy loss and stability in lithium ion battery. However, both single/double layers coating strategies suffer many fatal drawbacks, such as functional unitary or poor components contacting. Herein, we present a dual-component in one coating layer strategy, which composed of LixTiO2 nano-particles embedding in amorphous silica (LTSO) through a facile method. The coating material could not only be used as a physical protective layer to enhance the stability of NCM cathode, but also improve the ion diffusion kinetics with the contribution from the coating components. Thus, the battery performance was significantly enhanced. This dual-component coating strategy is novel, effective, simple and scalable, which could be extended and applied to other practical Ni-rich material modification designs.