Citric acid complex method of preparing inverse spinel LiNiVO₄ cathode material for lithium batteries

A new kind of citric acid complex method has been developed in this study for synthesizing inverse spinel LiNiVO₄ powder which can be used as the cathode active materials for lithium ion batteries with a very high voltage (4.8 V versus Li). Li₂CO₃, NiCO₃ and NH₄VO₃ were used as raw materials, and citric acid was used as a complex agent. Fine LiNiVO₄ powders with particle size 0.5 μm or less were successfully prepared at 500°C in 1h. Compared to the conventional solid state reaction methods, the citric acid complex method greatly reduced the temperature and the time for preparing pure LiNiVO₄. The resulting LiNiVO₄ powders were also characterized by TGA, XRD, SEM, IR and ICP techniques.