Patent Description:
The present disclosure relates to the field of battery material, and more specifically to a battery positive electrode material and a method for treating the battery positive electrode material and a battery.

In recent years, industries including mobile consumer electronics and electric vehicles have been developed rapidly, and there is an urgent desire to develop new energy batteries with high energy density and high safety and stability, so as to improve the long-term endurance and stable operation of these devices. As a result, lithium-ion or sodium-ion batteries are widely considered to be one of the most promising candidates for large-scale energy storage applications. However, due to the bottleneck of slow diffusion rate of lithium/sodium ion existing in the known positive electrode materials, the energy and power density of lithium ion or sodium ion battery is low, and high performance positive electrode materials can improve the energy density, cycle life and double rate of lithium ion or sodium ion battery, so it is particularly important to develop positive electrode materials with high performance <CIT>and <CIT> disclose positive electrode materials.

In view of the deficiencies existing in the prior art, one of the purposes of the present disclosure is to solve one or more problems existing in the prior art. For example, one of the purposes of the present disclosure is to provide a processing method that can enhance the surface energy of the positive particle of a battery and improve its interface affinity with the electrolyte.

To achieve the above purpose, the present invention was made, which is defined by the appended claims.

In an exemplary embodiment of the method of the present invention for processing the positive electrode material, the cold plasma treating time can be <NUM> to <NUM>.

In an exemplary embodiment of the method of the present disclosure for treating the positive electrode material of a battery, the discharge to generate cold plasma may be selected from one or a combination of radio-frequency plasma discharge, corona discharge, dielectric barrier discharge, and sliding arc discharge.

In an exemplary embodiment of the method of the present disclosure for treating the positive electrode material of a battery, the cold plasma treatment may include inputting a precursor gas including one or a combination of oxygen and nitrogen into a cold plasma generator to generate active particles to be doped in the carbon layer, where a flow rate of the precursor gas may be <NUM>/s~<NUM>/s.

In an exemplary embodiment of the method of the present disclosure for the treatment of positive battery material, the positive battery material may be a polyanionic compound, a layered oxide, a spinel compound, a Prussian blue, or a ternary lithium battery positive material. For example, the positive electrode material of the battery may be sodium vanadium phosphate, lithium iron phosphate, sodium titanium phosphate, sodium fluoride phosphate, LiMO<NUM>, NaMO<NUM>, LiN<NUM>O<NUM>, lithium nickel-cobalt manganate or lithium nickel-cobalt aluminate, where M may be Co, Ni, Mn, V or Fe, and N may be Co, Nix, Mn or V.

In an exemplary embodiment of the method for treating the positive battery material of the present disclosure, at least part of the surface of the doped positive electrode material has a rod-like form.

In an exemplary embodiment of the method of the present disclosure for treating the positive electrode material of a battery, an average length of the rod form may be <NUM>~<NUM>.

In an exemplary embodiment of the method of the present disclosure for treating the positive battery material, at least part of the surface of the doped positive electrode material forms a NaF layer, which may have an average thickness of <NUM>~<NUM>.

In an exemplary embodiment of the method of the present disclosure for treating the positive electrode material of a battery, the content of the NaF layer is not less than <NUM> ppm.

The other aspect of the present invention
provides positive electrode material of a battery, at least part of the surface contains a carbon layer and at least part of the surface has a rod-like shape, wherein the carbon layer is a carbon layer doped with active particles after being treated by cold plasma; The doping amount is not less than <NUM> ppm.

In a battery positive material of the present invention the active particle may be one or a combination of oxygen or nitrogen.

In an exemplary embodiment of a battery positive electrode material of the present disclosure, an average length of the rod form is <NUM>~<NUM>.

The other aspect of the present disclosure provides a positive electrode sheet which contain the positive electrode material treated by the above method or the above mentioned positive battery material.

The second aspect of the present disclosure provides a battery which contain the positive electrode sheet mentioned above.

Compared with the prior art, the beneficial effects of the present disclosure include at least one of the following:.

(<NUM>) The method of the present disclosure can enhance the particle surface energy of the positive battery material, improve its interface affinity with the electrolyte, and obtain the positive electrode material with uniform texture, low porosity, high ionic conductivity and electronic conductivity.

(<NUM>) The positive electrode material of the present disclosure has high electronic conductivity, good compatibility with the electrolyte interface, and the surface has a "rod-like" shape, so that the positive electrode material of the battery has good stability in contact with the fluid collecting interface, and can improve the transmission rate of sodium ions and electronic conductivity.

(<NUM>) The method of the present disclosure can generate a NaF layer on the surface of the positive electrode material of the battery. The NaF layer has ultra-high conductivity of sodium ions, which limits the occurrence of side reactions between the positive electrode material and the electrolyte, and improves the transmission rate of sodium ions at the solid-liquid interface.

(<NUM>) Lithium ion battery and sodium ion battery prepared using the battery positive electrode material treated by the method of the present disclosure have high energy density, cycle life and double rate.

(<NUM>) The method of the present disclosure has the advantages of simple technological flow, low energy consumption, less equipment investment, no "three wastes" generation, environmental friendliness, and is suitable for large-scale production applications.

Other purposes and features described above of the present disclosure will become clearer by the following description in conjunction with the attached drawings, where:.

A battery positive electrode material according to the present invention a processing method and a battery are described in detail in conjunction with attached drawings and exemplary embodiments below.

One aspect of the present disclosure provides a method for treating positive electrode material of a battery, which may include the following steps: performing cold plasma treatment on positive material with at least part of a carbon layer on the surface of a battery to be treated for doping the carbon layer, where the doping amount is not less than <NUM> ppm.

By doping the carbon layer attached or coated on the surface of the positive electrode material with highly active particles generated by cold plasma, more defects can be formed on the surface of the carbon layer, which improves the stability of the contact between the positive electrode material and the fluid collecting interface, and thus improving a transmission rate of sodium ions or lithium ions and electronic conductivity. In addition, it will also improve affinity between the positive electrode material and electrolyte, alleviate serious volume effect due to larger radius of sodium ion or lithium ion, so that the active substance has good structural stability in the long cycle process. Compared with untreated positive electrode material, the battery using treated positive electrode material has lower polarization voltage, lower interface impedance, more stable charging and discharging platform, and higher specific capacity.

In the embodiments, the battery positive electrode material to be treated shows that at least part of it has a carbon layer for carbon doping. The carbon layer can be fully or partially coated on the surface of the positive electrode material to be treated. That is, the carbon layer described in the present disclosure can form all or only part of the surface of the positive electrode material, and in some embodiments, the carbon layer can be one or more layers, for example, the carbon layer can be <NUM>, or <NUM>, or <NUM>, or more than <NUM>, or more than <NUM> layers. It should be understood that the surface of the positive electrode material can contain not only the carbon layer, but also other coating or adhesion layers on the surface of the positive electrode material that can improve performance of the positive electrode material.

In some embodiments, the doping amount will affect the electronic conductivity of the carbon layer on the surface of the positive electrode material. If the doping amount is less than <NUM> ppm, the improvement of the electronic conductivity of the carbon layer on the surface of the positive electrode material is not obvious. The doping amount is no less than <NUM> ppm, no less than <NUM> ppm, no less than <NUM> ppm, no less than <NUM> ppm, no less than <NUM> ppm, no less than <NUM> ppm, or <NUM> ppm~<NUM> ppm, or <NUM> ppm~<NUM> ppm, or <NUM> ppm~<NUM> ppm, or <NUM> ppm to <NUM> ppm, or <NUM> ppm to <NUM> ppm. In addition, doping amount greater than <NUM> ppm may cause destruction of the carbon layer on the surface and reduce cyclic stability of active particles. Therefore, preferably, doping amount should be between <NUM> ppm and <NUM> ppm.

In some embodiments, a thickness of the positive electrode material to be treated can be adjusted. As described in the present disclosure, positive electrode material with any thickness can be treated with the treatment method described in the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the thickness of the positive electrode material to be treated may be <NUM> to <NUM>, for example, the thickness may be less than <NUM> or greater than <NUM>, or <NUM>, or <NUM>, or <NUM>, or <NUM>.

In the embodiments, the power of cold plasma treatment range from <NUM> W to <NUM> W. In the range of <NUM> W~<NUM> W, doping can be realized while ensuring stability of the carbon layer on the surface of the positive electrode material. If the power is lower than <NUM> W, it will not reach the energy to break the carbon-carbon bond, so that the active particles will not be doped in. If the energy is higher than <NUM> W, the carbon layer structure on the surface of the positive electrode material will be destroyed, resulting in deterioration of its electrochemical performance. In this power range, the positive electrode material can obtain high surface energy and it can improve affinity between the positive electrode and the electrolyte interface. For example, the cold plasma can be generated by transporting an air source (precursor gas) such as oxygen, nitrogen, or a mixture of gases to a cold plasma generator to produce active particles. For the power applied above, it should be noted that the power is directly acted on the precursor gas, that is, the power directly received by the air source. In some embodiments, the power of cold plasma treatment may be no less than <NUM> W, or no less than <NUM> W, or no less than 289W, or no less than <NUM> W.

In the embodiments, a cold plasma treatment voltage is ranged from <NUM> V to <NUM> V, and a treatment current is ranged from <NUM> A to <NUM> A. Applying a voltage and a current in the above ranges can make the power of cold plasma treatment reach <NUM> W~<NUM> W, which can break the carbon-carbon bond while ensuring the stability of the carbon layer on the surface of the positive electrode material. It should be understood for a person skilled in the art that the voltage and the current here are those applied to a cold plasma generator. In some embodiments, the cold plasma treatment voltage may be no less than <NUM> V, or <NUM> V, or <NUM> V, or <NUM> V, or <NUM> V, or <NUM> V or a combination of the above ranges. The current of cold plasma treatment can be <NUM> A~<NUM> A, <NUM> A~<NUM> A, <NUM> A~<NUM> A, <NUM> A~<NUM> A or a combination of above range. Under the voltage, current and power applied above, the surface of the positive electrode material can be made to have a rod-like shape (rod-like structure), so that the positive electrode material has properties described in the present disclosure.

In some embodiments, a cold plasma treatment time can be <NUM>~<NUM>. During the above cold plasma treatment time, the co-applied treatment voltage and treatment current can ensure that the carbon layer on the surface of the positive electrode material is doped up to <NUM> ppm or more. For example, the treatment time can be no less than <NUM>, no less than <NUM>, no less than <NUM>, no less than <NUM>, no less than <NUM>, and no less than <NUM>. In some cases, the treatment time of cold plasma can be greater than <NUM>, or greater than <NUM>. It should be understood, however, that the treatment time can be adjusted at will to achieve doping quantities described in the present disclosure.

In some embodiments, the content of NaF produced will affect electrochemical performance of the electrode surface. If the content of NaF is less than 50ppm, improvement of ionic conductivity on the surface of the positive electrode material is not obvious. Therefore, the content of NaF shall not be less than <NUM> ppm, <NUM> ppm, <NUM> ppm, <NUM> ppm, <NUM> ppm, <NUM> ppm, or <NUM> ppm~<NUM> ppm, or <NUM> ppm~<NUM> ppm, or <NUM> ppm~<NUM> ppm, or <NUM> ppm to <NUM> ppm, or <NUM> ppm to <NUM> ppm. In addition, doping amounts greater than <NUM> ppm may cause damage to binders on the surface of the electrode surface and reduce a bonding force between active substances, so preferably, doping amounts between <NUM> ppm and <NUM> ppm.

In some embodiments, the discharge to generate cold plasma is one or a combination of radio-frequency plasma discharge (RF), corona discharge (CD), dielectric barrier discharge (DBD), and sliding arc discharge (GAD). The above cold plasma equipment can discharge stably under high pressure, which is simple to operate and can form a large area of plasma discharge area, so that the active particles in the discharge area have a large range of action, which provides a basis for efficient doping treatment. Of course, it should be understood that any other discharge suitable to generate cold plasma can be applied to the treatment described in the present disclosure.

In the embodiments, the doped active particles or the doped active substances are one or a combination of oxygen doped or nitrogen doped. For example, in some embodiments, it may be independent oxygen doped, nitrogen doped, or oxygen nitrogen doped. By doping the carbon layer with highly active particles produced by cold plasma, the positive electrode material can obtain better electrochemical performance. Of course, it should be understood for a person skilled in the art that the doping of the active particles mentioned above can include doping the carbon layer on the surface of the positive electrode material after input of one or a combination of the precursor gases of oxygen and nitrogen into the cold plasma generator to generate active particles. However, in specific embodiments, doping of active particles can also be achieved by other forms of cold plasma generators.

In the embodiments, the flow rate of precursor gas into the cold plasma generator is <NUM>/s~<NUM>/s. At the above precursor gas flow rate, the synergistically applied voltage and current can ensure realization of carbon layer doping. In one set of embodiments, the positive electrode material to be treated can be placed into the cold plasma generator, and the precursor gas can be passed through at the rate described in the present disclosure, and the cold plasma generator can be adjusted to the voltage and current described in the present disclosure to treat the positive electrode material. Of course, it should be understood that when oxygen doping is realized, oxygen doping needs to be completed in a short time under oxygen atmosphere to ensure that oxidation is rarely generated when oxygen-containd functional groups are introduced, so as to avoid oxidation caused by too long time or too high power. For the mixture of gases containing oxygen, oxidation can be ignored due to low oxygen content.

In some embodiments, the treated positive electrode material described in the present disclosure have different morphological characteristics compared with existing positive electrode material. At least a part of the surface of the positive electrode material has a rod-like shape. For example, for the positive electrode material vanadium phosphate sodium, a large number of rod-shaped structures, rod-like structures or sheet-shaped structures will appear on its surface after being treated by the treatment method described in the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the surface of the positive electrode material may be all in a rod-like shape, or at least <NUM> % surface area may be rod-like, or at least <NUM> % surface area may be rod-like, or at least <NUM> % surface area may be rod-like, or at least <NUM> % surface area may be rod-like, or at least <NUM> % surface area may be rod-like, or at least <NUM> % surface area may be in a rod-like shape, or at least <NUM> % of the surface area may be in a rod-like shape, or at least <NUM> % of the surface area may be in a rod-like shape, or at least <NUM> % of the surface area may be in a rod-like shape, or at least <NUM> % of the surface area may be in a rod-like shape, or at least <NUM> % of the surface area may be in a rod-like shape, or at least <NUM> % of the surface area may be in a rod-like shape or at least <NUM> % of its surface area is rod-like. The stability of contact between the positive electrode material and the fluid collector interface can be improved by the rod-like shape on the surface of the positive electrode material, and a transmission rate of sodium ions and electronic conductivity can be improved. However, it should be understood that the rod-like described in the present disclosure refers to a slender form or presents a slender structure, which can also be described as columnar, etc..

In some embodiments, the rod shape may have a specific length, that is, an average length of the rod shape may be no less than <NUM>, no less than <NUM>, no less than <NUM>, no less than <NUM>, no less than <NUM>, and no less than <NUM>. In some embodiments, the rod shape may have a specific diameter (i.e. the radial diameter of the rod), That is, an average diameter of rod shape can be no less than <NUM>, no less than <NUM>, no less than <NUM>, no less than <NUM>, no less than <NUM>, no less than <NUM>, no less than <NUM>, no less than <NUM>, no less than <NUM>.

In some embodiments, the mass ratio of the rod-like material to the positive electrode material can be specified. For example, the mass ratio of rod-shaped material can be <NUM> % to <NUM> % of the positive electrode material. In some embodiments, the mass ratio of rod-shaped material to the positive electrode material can be no less than <NUM> %, or <NUM> %, or <NUM> %, or <NUM> %, or <NUM> %, or <NUM> %, or <NUM> %, or <NUM> %, or <NUM> %. In some embodiments, the mass ratio is either no less than <NUM> %, or no less than <NUM> %, or no less than <NUM> %, or no less than <NUM> %.

In some embodiments, the battery positive electrode material may be a polyanionic compound, a layered oxide, a spinel compound, Prussian blue, or a ternary lithium battery positive electrode material. Polyanionic compounds may include vanadium phosphate sodium, lithium iron phosphate, sodium titanium phosphate, and sodium fluoride phosphate. The layered oxides may include LiMO<NUM> and NaMO<NUM>, where M may be Co, Ni, Mn, V or Fe. Spinel type compounds may include LiN<NUM>O<NUM>, where N may be Co, Nix, Mn, or V. The positive electrode material of ternary lithium battery can be lithium nickel-cobalt-manganate and lithium nickel-cobalt-aluminate. It should be understood that the treatment described in the present disclosure can also work with other positive electrode material.

In some embodiments, it should be understood that other substances that enhance the electrochemical properties of the positive electrode materials described here may also be introduced.

Another aspect of the present disclosure provides a positive electrode material. In an exemplary embodiment of the positive electrode material of the present present disclosure, the positive electrode material can be obtained after treatment by the method described herein for treating the positive electrode material of a battery. In some embodiments, at least part of the surface of the positive electrode material contains a carbon layer and at least part of the surface has a rod-like shape, where the carbon layer is a carbon layer doped with active particles after cold plasma treatment.

In the embodiments, as described in the present disclosure, doping amounts can be no less than <NUM> ppm.

In some embodiments, as described in the present disclosure, the active particle is one or a combination of oxygen and nitrogen.

In some embodiments, as described in the present disclosure, an average length of the rod morphology can range from <NUM> to <NUM> and an average diameter can range from <NUM> to <NUM>.

In some embodiments, as described in the present disclosure, a mass ratio of rod-shaped material can be specified. For example, the mass ratio of rod-shaped material can be <NUM> % to <NUM> % of the positive electrode material.

The second aspect of the present disclosure provides a positive electrode sheet including a collector fluid and a positive electrode material layer arranged on the collector fluid. The positive electrode material includes positive material treated by the method for treating positive electrode material of a battery described above or includes a positive electrode material described above. In addition to the positive electrode material, the positive electrode material layer may also include a conductive agent and a binder. A positive material layer may be introduced into a positive electrode sheet by a method known in the art.

A second aspect of the present disclosure provides a battery, in particular a sodium ion battery, including a positive electrode sheet described above. It should be understood that batteries also contain a number of other essential components of batteries, and that assembly methods of batteries are known in the art.

In some embodiments, the battery may be a button battery. The assembly of button batteries may be known in the art. For example, the positive electrode sheet can be placed in a glove box for button battery assembly.

In order to better understand the above exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, they are further illustrated in conjunction with specific examples.

The treatment of positive electrode material of a battery includes the following steps:.

Physical characterization of vanadium phosphate sodium positive electrode material obtained after nitrogen DBD activation treatment by cold plasma was conducted. It can be seen from the XRD pattern of vanadium phosphate sodium positive electrode material in <FIG> that the physical properties of vanadium phosphate sodium positive electrode material after nitrogen DBD cold plasma activation treatment (DBD-<NUM> in <FIG>) did not change compared with that untreated (DBD-<NUM> in <FIG>), indicating that nitrogen DBD cold plasma treatment would not damage the crystal structure of vanadium phosphate sodium. Moreover, it can be seen from the XPS diagram of the positive electrode material of vanadium phosphate sodium in <FIG> that, compared with the electrode material without nitrogen DBD-<NUM>, NaF layer will be generated after nitrogen DBD-<NUM> treatment.

The treatment of battery positive electrode material includes the following steps:.

The morphology and physical and electrochemical tests of the positive electrode material vanadium phosphate sodium obtained through activation treatment by the nitrogen DBD cold plasma were carried out. The content of nitrogen doping in the carbon layer was <NUM> ppm. According to the SEM images in <FIG>, compared with the vanadium phosphate sodium positive electrode material without nitrogen DBD cold plasma treatment (<FIG>), the treated vanadium phosphate sodium positive electrode material (<FIG>) has a rod-like shape (rod-like structure, slender structure), which can improve interface contact between vanadium phosphate sodium positive electrode material and electrolyte. As shown in the volt-capacity diagram in <FIG>, the polarization of the battery drops from <NUM> V to less than <NUM> V, and the charge-discharge platform is more stable and has a higher specific capacity.

Physical and electrochemical tests were conducted on the positive electrode material vanadium phosphate sodium obtained after the cold plasma activation treatment by nitrogen DBD. The content of nitrogen doping in the carbon layer was <NUM> ppm. The contact Angle of untreated vanadium phosphate sodium positive electrode material to the electrolyte was shown in <FIG>, and the contact Angle of the treated Vanadium phosphate sodium positive electrode material to the electrolyte was shown in <FIG>. The contact Angle of the positive electrode material to the electrolyte decreases from <NUM>° to <NUM>°, which proves that the positive electrode material has better wettability to the electrolyte after treatment. At the same time, the EIS in <FIG> showed a decrease in interface impedance from <NUM>Ω to <NUM>Ω compared with untreated.

Physical and electrochemical tests were conducted on the vanadium phosphate sodium positive electrode material obtained through the cold plasma activation treatment of nitrogen DBD. The content of nitrogen doping in the carbon layer was 308ppm. The XPS of the untreated vanadium phosphate sodium positive electrode material was shown in <FIG>, and the XPS of the treated vanadium phosphate sodium positive electrode material was shown in <FIG>. Among them, the content of pyridine nitrogen, pyrrole nitrogen and graphitized nitrogen increases (here, pyridine nitrogen, pyrrole nitrogen and graphitized nitrogen are three different forms of existence in which nitrogen particles are doped into the carbon layer), thus increasing the defects of the carbon layer, which helps to improve the electronic and ionic conductivity of vanadium phosphate sodium.

Physical and electrochemical tests were conducted on the positive electrode material of vanadium phosphate sodium which was activation treated by oxygen RF cold plasma. The content of argon doping in the carbon layer was <NUM> ppm. Compared with the untreated electrode sheet, the polarization and impedance are lower, the polarization is reduced by <NUM> % and the impedance is reduced by <NUM> %.

Physical and electrochemical tests were carried out on the positive electrode material of vanadium phosphate sodium which was activation treated by cold plasma of CD with the mixture of nitrogen and oxygen. The content of nitrogen and oxygen doping in the carbon layer is <NUM> ppm, which has lower polarization and impedance compared with the untreated electrode sheet. The voltage capacity of vanadium phosphate sodium under <NUM> C condition is shown in <FIG>. After the treatment, the capacity of the battery is increased by <NUM> % on the basis of the original (before activation treating), and the polarization of the battery is reduced by about <NUM> %. The long cycle figure of vanadium phosphate sodium under <NUM> C condition is shown in <FIG>. After treatment, the capacity retention rate of the battery is increased by <NUM> % on the basis of the original.

Physical and electrochemical tests were carried out on the positive electrode material vanadium phosphate sodium which was activated by cold plasma of oxygen CD. The content of oxygen doping in the carbon layer is <NUM> ppm, which has lower polarization and impedance compared with the untreated electrode sheet. The polarization is reduced by <NUM><NUM> %, and the impedance is reduced by <NUM> %.

Method for treating positive electrode material include the following steps:.

Physical and electrochemical tests on the positive electrode material of lithium iron phosphate obtained from the cold plasma activation treatment of nitrogen DBD show that the content of nitrogen doping in the carbon layer is <NUM> ppm, which has lower polarization, higher capacity and higher capacity retention rate than that of the untreated electrode sheet. The voltage capacity of the treated lithium iron phosphate under <NUM> C condition is shown in <FIG>. After the treatment, the polarization of the battery is reduced by about <NUM> %, and the capacity is increased by <NUM> % on the basis of the original. The long cycle FIG of treated lithium iron phosphate under <NUM> C condition is shown in <FIG>, and the capacity retention rate is increased by <NUM> % on the basis of the original.

The treatment of lithium iron phosphate positive electrode material includes the following steps:.

Claim 1:
A method for treating positive electrode material of a battery, comprising:
activation treating the positive electrode material, wherein at least part of a surface of the positive electrode material is coated with a carbon layer, and the activation treating is performed under cold plasma to carry out active particle doping on the carbon layer, wherein an active particle doped amount is not less than 50ppm; wherein a power for the activation treatment is <NUM> W~<NUM> W; a voltage for the activation treatment is <NUM> V~<NUM> V, and a current for the activation treatment is <NUM> A~<NUM> A; the active particle doped is one or combination of oxygen doped and nitrogen doped; and the activation treating comprising inputting a precursor gas comprising one or a combination of oxygen and nitrogen into a cold plasma generator to generate active particles to be doped in the carbon layer, where a flow rate of precursor gas is <NUM>/s~<NUM>/s.