Liquid-Phase Synthesis of Uniformly Nanosized LiMnPO4 Particles and Their Electrochemical Properties for Lithium-Ion Batteries

Uniformly nanosized particles of olivine LiMnPO 4 were prepared at 280 °C by liquid-phase synthesis using a high-boiling-point organic solution, and their electrochemical properties were investigated by charge and discharge measurements for the first time. TEM observation clarified that the resultant LiMnPO 4 particles had fairly uniform particle sizes of ca. 7 nm. The discharge curves of the nanosized LiMnPO 4 particles showed a monotonous decrease in voltage below 4 V, which was quite different from the clear plateau observed for conventional micrometer-sized LiMnPO 4 powder. Thus, uniformly nanosized particles of active materials are readily available for studying the particle-size effect on the electrochemical properties of Li-ion batteries.