Controlling the Lithium Intercalation Voltage in the Li(Mn_1–xNix)₂O₄ Spinel <i>via</i> Tuning of the Ni Concentration: a Density Functional Theory Study

Abstract

LiMn2O4 spinel is a promising cathode material for secondary lithium-ion batteries. Despite showing a high average voltage of lithium intercalation, the material is structurally unstable, undergoing lowering of the crystal symmetry due to Jahn-Teller distortion of the six-fold Mn³⁺ cations. Although Ni has been proposed as a suitable substitutional dopant to improve the structural stability of LiMn₂O₄, and enhance the average lithium intercalation voltage,  the thermodynamics of the Ni incorporation and its effect on the electrochemical properties of this spinel material are not yet known. In this work, we  have employed density functional theory calculations with a Hubbard Hamiltonian (DFT+U) to investigate the thermodynamics of cation mixing in the  Li(Mn_1–xNix)₂O₄ solid solution. Our results suggest LiMn_1.5Ni_0.5O₄ is the most stable composition from room temperature up to at least 1000 K, in  agreement with experiments. We also found that the configurational entropy is much lower than the maximum entropy at 1000 K, indicating that higher  temperatures are required to reach a fully disordered solid solution. A maximum average lithium intercalation voltage of 4.8 eV was calculated for the  LiMn1.₅Ni₀.₅O₄ composition, which is very close to the experimental value. The temperature was found to have a negligible effect on the Li intercalation  voltage of the most stable composition. The findings reported here support the application of LiMn_1.5Ni_0.5O₄ as a suitable cathode material for lithium-  ion batteries, with a highly stable voltage of intercalation under a wide range of temperatures.