A New Cathode Additive to Compensate the Irreversible Lithium Loss at the Anode for a Lithium-Ion Battery

Silicon-based anode materials have been considered as high energy-density anodes for a next generation lithium-ion battery. However, it exhibits serious lithium loss owing to the SEI formation and mechanical degradation. To compensate the lithium loss at the anode side, several cathode additives that can feed extra lithium to the anode have been proposed and demonstrated. Li₂NiO₂ and Li₂MoO₃ are examples for this purpose. However, Li₂NiO₂ (i) doesn’t have enough capacity for this purpose: the maximum charge capacity in the literature is about 400 mAh/g, (ii) shows significant oxygen evolution during charge, and (iii) reduce thermal stability of a cell. Li₂MoO₃ (i) doesn’t have enough capacity for this purpose: the maximum charge capacity in the literature is about 250 mAh/g and (ii) shows a serious molybdenum dissolution issue in a liquid electrolyte. We will propose a new material as a cathode additive that has a very high charging capacity and doesn’t deteriorate any cathode properties.