Preparation of NMC622 Cathode Materials Using a Cost Effective Circular Type Reactor for Li-Ion Battery Application

Li(Ni0.6Mn0.2Co0.2)O2 (NMC622) cathode materials have been recognized as the next generation cathode materials due to its higher capacity and lower raw material cost than commercialized cathode materials such as NMC532. Thus, many industrial companies have been made every effort to commercialize and apply the NMC622 to lithium ion battery system such as energy storage system (ESS). However, production cost of NMC622 still has been recognized as expensive material to be applied in the industrial field and it becomes main issues to be overcome. CSTR (Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor) has been widely applied in the industrial field to produce the NMC622 precursor but it has initial long stabilization time as well as low production efficiency. This is caused by the original limitation of CSTR such as the low mass transfer rate and required complete mixing zone to stabilize the system. Thus, in this study, we suggest the novel reactor system that shows the higher mass transfer rate as well as higher production rate than those of CSTR. Developed novel reactor system uses the taylor-couette flows to induce higher mass transfer rate and production efficiency with uniform particle size distribution.

In this study, we synthesized NMC622 using taylor-couette reactor to understand the function and mechanism of the operation. The effect of operating parameters, i.e. pH, operating rpm, and feed retention time, in the taylor-couette reactor, was investigated thoroughly to evaluate the feasibility to produce NMC622 precursor. Produced precursors are characterized using SEM, XRD, ICP, FIB, PSA. Then, cathode materials are prepared and tested using a galvanostatic intermittent titration method (GITT) to understand the electrochemical properties. This study verified that taylor couette reactor is feasible process to be applied to the commercial NMC622 production.

Acknowledgement - This work was supported by the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning under the Energy Technology Development Program (20132020101750)