High lithium storage performance of Ni_0.5Fe_0.5O_1−xN_x thin film with NiO-type crystal structure

Abstract

The large voltage hysteresis of the NiO anode, which owes much to the intermediate product Li₂NiO₂, is one of the main obstacles to its practical application in lithium-ion batteries. In this work, we show that the incorporation of Fe- and N-ions in the NiO lattice can suppress the formation of intermediate product Li₂NiO₂ and thus greatly reduces the voltage hysteresis of the NiO anode from ~1.2 to ~0.9 V. In comparison with the pure NiO electrode, the Ni_0.5Fe_0.5O_1−xN_x anode exhibits significantly enhanced reversible specific capacity (959 mAh·g⁻¹ at 0.3 A·g⁻¹), cycling stability (capacity retention of 96.1% at 100th cycle relative to the second cycle) and rate capability (442 at 10 A·g⁻¹). These results provide a practical method to enhance the lithium storage performance of the NiO anode and more importantly a new solution to the large voltage hysteresis of conversion-type anodes.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

nickel oxide / thin film / doping / magnetron sputtering / conversion-type anode / voltage hysteresis

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the support by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51767021), the Development Funds of Hunan Wedid Materials Technology Co., Ltd., China (Grant No. 738010241), and the Southwest Petroleum University (Grant No. 2021KSZ05009).

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2022 Higher Education Press