Large Scale Production of Lithium and Sodium Based NMC Oxide Cathodes
Authors: Viswanathan Raja , Yugeswaran Subramanian , Amarnath P , Sona EA , Murugan Ramaswamy , Sujin Jose P 
Published: August 2024

The ongoing embrace of innovative renewable energy conversion methods, couple with diverse and dynamic energy storage applications, necessitates the adoption of new adaptable process lines in industrial settings [1]. The adopting process line and methods are chosen based on various factors like overall cost, sustainable process, adaptable infrastructure, and pollution standards. Interestingly recent developments in lithium containing high energy dense battery for electric mobility solutions require varied industrial solutions in every other step for adopting the transition ahead. For example, high temperature treatment during large-scale production of lithium like volatile elements containing multi cation oxide battery materials suffer inconsistency in the nominal composition of its final product[2]. Currently, industries producing lithium-based battery materials use scalable techniques like sol-gel / coprecipitation based batch processing[3]. To offset lithium losses or incorporate lithium content, conventional approaches involve the use of complex precursors, excess lithium addition, and subsequent post-processing techniques. However, the conventional two-step process leads to uncontrollable lithium content during large scale production. Hence, in this study, we propose a new methodology based on thermal plasma spray pyrolysis and its optimization for large scale production of lithium and sodium based multi-cation oxide materials. Spray pyrolysis is a robust large scale production process utilized in multitude industries. Conventionally, spray pyrolysis-based techniques are used in industry to achieve relatively simple compound or two step procedures to achieve desired uniform, phase purity, and structures[4-7]. Herein, thermal plasma-based spray pyrolysis utilizes the plasma environment to pyrolyze the precursors of multiple cationic elements before depositing at a shorter distance. Optimization of spray pyrolysis parameters is made such that, lithium content is maintained and multi-cation oxide with phase purity, uniformity, and narrow size distribution is achieved. The advantage of the proposed method lies in adaptability of simpler precursors, cost, and time effectiveness. Thermal plasma-based spray pyrolysis mediated synthesis of uniform Lithium and Manganese rich NMC (Li-NMC) Li1.2MO2 (M = Ni (0.1), Mn (0.6), Co (0.1)) cathode material is attempted and achieved the reported rock salt pattern αNaFeO2 structure without cation mixing in the layered structure. X-ray diffraction results confirm that both Lithium NMC oxide and Sodium NMC oxides resulted in high phase purity. The layered nature of the samples identified from distinct hexagonal doublet (018) / (110) around 65º 2θ. Li-NMC resulted in a capacity of 160 mAh g-1. Optimized synthesis parameters of the thermal plasma spray pyrolysis method resulted in a production yield rate of 5 g min-1. Microscopic examination reveals cuboid shape of nanostructures with an average size of approximately 200 nm and narrow size distribution. Similarly, optimization of production scale parameters for Na-NMC oxide is being carried out.

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