Lithium iron silicate cathode synthesis and characterisation for lithium ion batteries

After the commercialization of lithium ion batteries by the Sony company in 1990, the portable mobile devices and communication revolution changed the way people live. Experts similarly predict that in the next 10 years, electric vehicles will quickly exceed the volume of internal combustion vehicles sold. For this reason, despite the high demand for lithium-ion batteries, it still remains an unresolvable problem in terms of cost, safety and energy density. In this work, the lithium ion batteries are focused on the cathode electrode, which directly affects the capacity and cycle life. Studies on the synthesis and characterization of the lithium iron silicate cathode powder, which can be easily found in nature with its iron and silicon elements and attracted the attention of researchers due to its high theoretical capacity. In this study, an in-depth study was conducted on the amount of carbon quantity, temperature, time, particle size and phase purity for lithium iron silicate dust produced by solid state synthesis method. As a result of the studies, the amount of carbon used for reducing purposes, the synthesis temperature and the duration, the phase purity of the mixing environment and the battery capacity were seriously affected. In addition, pouch type half cell production was performed with synthesized lithium iron silicate cathode powder. Electrochemical tests of the produced half-cell batteries were carried out to obtain a capacity of 122 mAh/g at the C/30 cycle rate.