Nano-fusiform Li₂FeSiO₄ with highly exposed (001) facets for Lithium-Ion Batteries

Li₂FeSiO₄ is a promising cathode material with high energy density and low cost for lithium-ion batteries. However, it is suffering from ultralow ion and electron kinetics, which limit its future application. To overcome the above drawbacks, crystal habits engineering and nanoscale effect strategies are adopted to improve the kinetics process. A nano-scale fusiform Li₂FeSiO₄ with highly exposed (001) facets is successfully synthesized by using cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) as a structure directing agent, and the specific formation mechanism is also revealed. Benefiting from this fusiform face-exposed crystal structure, the fusiform-Li₂FeSiO₄ nanocrystal delivers a reversible capacity of 225.4 mAh g⁻¹ at 0.1C, and 90 % capacity retention for 800 cycles. Such ion/electron kinetic-enhanced engineered nanocrystals offer an exemplification in developing next-generation cathodes for high-energy-density Lithium-ion batteries.