Morphology-Directed Synthesis of LiFePO4 and LiCoPO4 from Nanostructured Li1+2 x PO3+ x

A LiPO3-type nanostructure has been developed using a simple microwave approach at temperatures as low as 200 °C. This phase presents an ideal architecture for the morphology-directed synthesis of the olivine-type phases LiFePO4 and LiCoPO4, through a simple and scalable solution-based technique. Pure and carbon-composited olivine phases of interconnected nanoparticulate morphologies display excellent performance at high rates (up to 20 C) over 500 cycles in Li-ion battery cells.