LOW-TEMPERATURE SYNTHESIS OF INSERTION OXIDES FOR LITHIUM BATTERIES

The increasing demand for portable electronic devices has created sign ificant activity in the development of compact lightweight batteries o f high-energy density, and lithium batteries have become attractive in this regard. The commercial lithium cells use lithium cobalt oxide ca thodes and the high cost and toxicity of cobalt has prompted the desig n and synthesis of alternate insertion hosts. Several low-temperature synthesis routes have been pursued during the past few years both to i mprove the properties of known oxide hosts as well as to access new in sertion oxides, particularly metastable phases. This review, after pro viding a brief background to lithium batteries, lithium insertion comp ounds, and lithium ion batteries, presents the low-temperature synthes is and electrochemical properties of manganese, cobalt, nickel, iron, vanadium, chromium, titanium, molybdenum, and tin oxides. The use of s oft chemistry methods such as sol-gel processing, ion-exchange reactio ns, hydrothermal reactions, and oxidation-reduction reactions in solut ions to obtain oxide hosts are presented.