Abstract
The influences of adding vanadium to the structure evolution and electrochemical performance of LiFePO 4 are systematically investigated by in-situ X-ray powder diffraction and X-ray absorption near edge structure spectroscopy. The results indicate that the addition of a small amount of vanadium (less than at 1%) significantly reduces the formation of non-crystalline (highly disordered) triphylite and remnant heterosite phases in the cathode of battery especially at the rate capability higher than 0.5C. The cycle stability of LiFePO 4 cathode with vanadium additive after 80 cycles is improved by 14.9% compared to that without vanadium additive. Such an enhancement could be attributed to the ion diffusion kinetics being improved and inactive triphylite being reduced by the supervalent-vanadium additive in cathode during electrochemical redox cycles. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.