Synthesis and Characterization of Electrospun NANO LiMn2O4 for Cathode Material Application

In this work, LiMn 2 O 4 powder synthesized by sol-gel method using tartaric acid as chelating agent was mixed with polyethylene oxide (PEO) to form a solution of LiMn 2 O 4 /PEO. The polyethylene oxide/lithium manganese oxides (LiMn 2 O 4 /PEO) solution in ethanol was electrospun to produce cathode nanofiber materials. The effect of different concentrations of LiMn 2 O 4 (5%, 7% and 9%) on fiber formation was also studied. After calcination, nanoparticles of LiMn 2 O 4 with less than 100 nm were successfully obtained. The structure and properties of fabricated electrospun LiMn 2 O 4 nanofiber and nanoparticles were studied using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Electrospinning succeeded in forming clear interwoven spider web nanofiber with no bead formation. The results showed that the particle size increased with increasing LiMn 2 O 4 content. Conductivity studies show that the very small particle size resulted in low conductivity performance. The cell with configuration Li/1M LiPF 6 in EC/DMC/ LiMn 2 O 4 has given an open circuit voltage (OCV) of ~ 3.0 V.