Transition metal-containing composite hydroxide and manufacturing method thereof, positive electrode active material for a non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery and manufacturing method thereof, and non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2020161644-A1
Application number	US-201916709010-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 10, 2019
Priority date	Jun 26, 2015
Publication date	May 21, 2020
Grant date	—

Abstract

Provided is a positive electrode active material that is capable of simultaneously improving the battery capacity, output characteristics and cycling characteristics of a secondary battery. When obtaining a transition metal-containing composite hydroxide that is a precursor to the positive electrode active material, by adjusting the pH value of a reaction aqueous solution to be within the range 12.0 to 14.0 and performing generation of nuclei (nucleation), and then adjusting the pH value of the reaction aqueous solution to be within the range 10.5 to 12.0 and causing the nuclei to grow (particle growth), atmosphere control is performed at least one time in which the reaction atmosphere during nucleation and in the initial stage of particle growth is adjusted to be a non-oxidizing atmosphere, and during particle growth is switched to be an oxidizing atmosphere having an oxygen concentration that is 5% by volume or more by directly introducing an oxidizing gas into the reaction aqueous solution while continuing the supply of a raw material aqueous solution, and then is further switched to a non-oxidizing atmosphere by directly introducing an inert gas into the reaction aqueous solution while continuing the supply of the raw material aqueous solution.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A positive electrode active material for a non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery including a lithium transition metal-containing composite oxide, comprising
secondary particles formed by aggregates of primary particles; the secondary particles comprising: an outer-shell section formed by an aggregate of the primary particles; at least one aggregate section formed by an aggregate of primary particles and existing on an inside of the outer-shell section, and electrically and structurally connected to the outer-shell section; and at least one space section existing on the inside of the outer-shell section and in which there are no primary particles; and the average particle size of the secondary particles being within the range 1 μm to 15 μm, an index [(d90−d10)/average particle size] that indicates a spread of a particle size distribution of the secondary particles being 0.7 or less, and the surface area per unit volume being 1.7 m 2 /cm 3 or greater.

2 . The positive electrode active material for a non-aqueous electrolyte according to claim 1 , wherein the BET specific surface area is within the range 0.7 m 2 /g to 5.0 m 2 /g.

3 . The positive electrode active material for a non-aqueous electrolyte according to claim 1 , wherein the positive electrode active material includes lithium transition metal-containing composite oxide that has a composition that is expressed by the general formula (B): Li 1+u Ni x Mn y Co z M t O 2 (where, −0.05≤u≤0.50,x+y+z+t=1, 0.3≤x≤0.95, 0.05≤y≤0.55, 0≤z≤0.4, 0≤t≤0.1, and M is at least one additional element selected from among Mg, Ca, Al, Ti, V, Cr, Zr, Nb, Mo, Hf, Ta and W); and has a layered hexagonal crystal type crystal structure.

4 . A non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery comprising a positive electrode, a negative electrode, a separator and a non-aqueous electrolyte, wherein the positive electrode active material for a non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery according to claim 1 is used as the positive electrode material of the positive electrode.

Assignees

• Sumitomo Metal Mining Co

Inventors

• Toma Takahiro
• Aida Taira
• Komukai Tetsufumi
• Kamata Yasutaka

Classifications

• C01P2004/03

  obtained by SEM · CPC title

• C01P2006/12

  Surface area · CPC title

• C01P2004/50

  Agglomerated particles · CPC title

• H01M4/505

  of mixed oxides or hydroxides containing manganese for inserting or intercalating light metals, e.g. LiMn2O4 or LiMn2OxFy · CPC title

• C01P2006/40

  Electric properties · CPC title