Drastically enhanced high-rate performance of carbon-coated LiFePO₄ nanorods using a green chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method for lithium ion battery: A selective carbon coating process

Application of LiFePO₄ (LFP) to large current power supplies is greatly hindered by its poor electrical conductivity (10^-9 S cm^-1) and sluggish Li⁺ transport. Carbon coating is considered to be necessary for improving its interparticle electronic conductivity and thus electrochemical performance. Here, we proposed a novel, green, low cost and controllable CVD approach using solid glucose as carbon source which can be extended to most cathode and anode materials in need of carbon coating. Hydrothermally synthesized LFP nanorods with optimized thickness of carbon coated by this recipe are shown to have superb high-rate performance, high energy, and power densities, as well as long high-rate cycle lifetime. For 200 C (18s) charge and discharge, the discharge capacity and voltage are 89.69 mAh g^-1 and 3.030 V, respectively, and the energy and power densities are 271.80 Wh kg^-1 and 54.36 kW kg^-1, respectively. The capacity retention of 93.0%, and the energy and power density retention of 93.6% after 500 cycles at 100 C were achieved. Compared to the conventional carbon coating through direct mixing with glucose (or other organic substances) followed by annealing (DMGA), the carbon phase coated using this CVD recipe is of higher quality and better uniformity. Undoubtedly, this approach enhances significantly the electrochemical performance of high power LFP and thus broadens greatly the prospect of its applications to large current power supplies such as electric and hybrid electric vehicles.