Positive electrode active material precursor for secondary battery, positive electrode active material, preparation methods thereof, and lithium secondary battery including the positive electrode active material

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12428313-B2
Application number	US-202017433345-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 27, 2020
Priority date	Feb 28, 2019
Publication date	Sep 30, 2025
Grant date	Sep 30, 2025

Abstract

A method of preparing a positive electrode active material precursor for a secondary battery includes continuously adding a nickel (Ni), cobalt (Co), and manganese (Mn) transition metal cation-containing solution, an alkaline solution, and an ammonium ion-containing solution to a reactor, and forming a positive electrode active material precursor, in which nickel (Ni) and cobalt (Co) are in non-oxidized hydroxide forms and manganese (Mn) is in an oxidized form, by co-precipitation while a gas is not added or an oxygen-containing gas is continuously added to the reactor. A positive electrode active material precursor for a secondary battery is also provided which includes nickel (Ni), cobalt (Co), and manganese (Mn), wherein the nickel (Ni) and the cobalt (Co) are in non-oxidized hydroxide forms, and the manganese (Mn) is in an oxidized form.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A positive electrode active material precursor for a secondary battery comprising nickel (Ni), cobalt (Co), and manganese (Mn),
wherein the nickel (Ni) and the cobalt (Co) are in non-oxidized hydroxide forms, and the manganese (Mn) is in an oxidized form,
wherein the positive electrode active material precursor is represented by Formula 1:
x (Ni 1-a-b Co a M 1 b (OH) 2 ). y (MnO 2 )  [Formula 1]

wherein, M 1 comprises at least one selected from the group consisting of iron (Fe), 0.25≤x≤0.5, 0.5≤y≤0.75, x+y=1, 0<a≤0.6, and 0≤b≤0.4,
wherein the positive electrode active material precursor has a tap density in a range of 1.5 g/cc to 1.8 g/cc.

2. The positive electrode active material precursor of claim 1 , wherein the positive electrode active material precursor is in a form of a secondary particle in which primary particles are aggregated, and a primary particle has a particle diameter of 50 nm to 500 nm.

3. The positive electrode active material precursor of claim 1 , wherein a ratio of a lithium raw material to total metals (Li/M) is in a range from 1.2 to 1.6.

4. A method of preparing the positive electrode active material precursor of claim 1 for the secondary battery, comprising:
continuously adding nickel (Ni), cobalt (Co), and manganese (Mn) transition metal cation-containing solution, an alkaline solution, and an ammonium ion-containing solution to a reactor; and
forming the positive electrode active material precursor, in which the nickel (Ni) and the cobalt (Co) are in non-oxidized hydroxide forms and the manganese (Mn) is in the oxidized form, by co-precipitation while a gas is not added or an oxygen-containing gas is continuously added to the reactor.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein nitrogen (N 2 ), argon (Ar), and carbonic acid (H 2 CO 3 ) gases are not added to the reactor.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein, when the oxygen-containing gas is added, a flow rate of oxygen (O 2 ) gas added satisfies Equation 1,
(amount (mol) of manganese (Mn) added per hour×2)/0.089≤flow rate (L/h) of oxygen (O 2 ) gas added≤1.1×{(amount (mol) of manganese (Mn) added per hour×2)/0.089}.  [Equation 1]

7. The method of claim 4 , wherein the co-precipitation is performed by further adding the M 1 cation-containing solution to the reactor.

8. A method of preparing a positive electrode active material for a secondary battery, comprising:
mixing the positive electrode active material precursor prepared according to claim 4 with a lithium raw material; and
sintering at 750° C. to 1,000° C. after the mixing to form a lithium composite transition metal oxide.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the positive electrode active material precursor and the lithium raw material are mixed in amounts such that a molar ratio of the positive electrode active material precursor to lithium (Li) of the lithium raw material is in a range of 1:1.2 to 1:1.6.

10. A positive electrode active material for a secondary battery which is prepared according to claim 8 .

11. The positive electrode active material claim 10 , wherein the positive electrode active material has a pellet density of 2.0 g/cc or more.

12. A positive electrode for a secondary battery, the positive electrode comprising the positive electrode active material of claim 10 .

13. A lithium secondary battery comprising the positive electrode of claim 12 .

14. The positive electrode active material of claim 10 , wherein the positive electrode active material has a pellet density of 2.0 g/cc to 3.0 g/cc.

Assignees

• Lg Chemical Ltd

Inventors

• Lee Min Joon
• Lee Jun Won
• Jun In Kook

Classifications

• H01M10/0525

  Rocking-chair batteries, i.e. batteries with lithium insertion or intercalation in both electrodes; Lithium-ion batteries · CPC title

• C01P2006/40

  Electric properties · CPC title

• C01P2006/11

  Powder tap density · CPC title

• C01P2004/64

  Nanometer sized, i.e. from 1-100 nanometer · CPC title

• C01P2004/62

  Submicrometer sized, i.e. from 0.1-1 micrometer · CPC title