The present disclosure discloses a W-containing high-nickel ternary cathode material, including both spherical secondary particles and single-crystal particles. There is basically no W inside the single-crystal particles, and the spherical secondary particles are doped with W. A preparation method of the W-containing high-nickel ternary cathode material includes: mixing a nickel salt, a cobalt salt, and a manganese salt according to a specified molar ratio, and adding an ammonia solution and a sodium hydroxide solution for co-precipitation to prepare a precursor A; mixing a nickel salt, a cobalt salt, a manganese salt, and a tungsten salt, and adding an ammonia solution and a sodium hydroxide solution for co-precipitation to prepare a W-containing precursor B; and mixing the precursor A, the precursor B, a lithium source, and a doping element M-containing compound, and subjecting a resulting mixture to high-temperature sintering in an oxygen atmosphere to obtain the high-nickel ternary cathode material including both spherical secondary particles and single-crystal particles. While increasing the capacity, the spherical secondary particles in the product of the present disclosure can ensure that a crystal structure will not undergo obvious phase transition when lithium ions are deintercalated during a cycling process, which helps to improve the cycling performance.

The present invention relates to a positive electrode active material comprising an overlithiated layered oxide (OLO) and, more specifically, to a positive electrode active material comprising: an OLO represented by chemical formula 1 below; and an amorphous free oxide coating layer of an amorphous free oxide on the surface of the OLO represented by chemical formula 1. [Chemical formula 1] Li.sub.2MnO.sub.3.(1-r)Li.sub.aNi.sub.xCo.sub.yMn.sub.zM1.sub.1-(x+y+z)O.sub.2 (wherein, in chemical formula 1, 0<r≤0.6, 0<a≤1, 0≤x≤1, 0≤y<1, 0≤z<1, and 0<x+y+z≤1, and M1 is at least any one selected from Na, K, Mg, Al, Fe, Cr, Y, Sn, Ti, B, P, Zr, Ru, Nb, W, Ba, Sr, La, Ga, Mg, Gd, Sm, Ca, Ce, Fe, Al, Ta, Mo, Sc, V, Zn, Cu, In, S, B, Ge, Si, and Bi).

Slug flow manufacturing systems and methods for production of battery microparticle materials such as nickel-cobalt-manganese oxide (NCM) are disclosed. The slug flow reactor system is capable of producing microparticles reproducibly and continuously in desired scales. The system may be run with fast kinetics (e.g., complete reaction from nucleation to particle recovery completes within a few minutes) and near-ambient reaction temperature (e.g., allowing to use inexpensive plastic tubing). The system allows control of composition (overall, and radial profile) and size of microparticles without changing chemistry nor increasing temperature. The platforms offers the ability to conveniently generate uniform microparticles, of controllable size with an ease of scale up.

A method of producing a positive electrode material for a secondary battery includes preparing a lithium composite transition metal oxide containing nickel, cobalt, and manganese, forming a coating layer on a surface of the lithium composite transition metal oxide, and post-treating the lithium composite transition metal oxide having the coating layer formed thereon, wherein the post-treating is performed by exposing the lithium composite transition metal oxide having the coating layer formed thereon to moisture at a relative humidity of 10% to 50% at 25° C., and then heat treating the lithium composite transition metal oxide to remove residual moisture.

A positive electrode active material includes a lithium transition metal oxide, which is in the form of a secondary particle formed by aggregation of primary particles and is represented by Formula 1, wherein the lithium transition metal oxide has a crystalline size of 160 nm or less and an average particle diameter of the primary particle of 0.6 μm or more. A preparation method thereof is also provided.

A positive electrode active material precursor for a secondary battery is in the form of a secondary particle in which a plurality of primary particles are aggregated, wherein major axes of the primary particles are arranged in a direction from a center of the secondary particle toward a surface thereof, wherein the primary particle includes crystallines in which a (001) plane is arranged in a direction having an angle of 20° to 160° with respect to a major axis direction of the primary particle. A method of preparing the positive electrode active material precursor is also provided.

A positive-electrode material according to the present disclosure includes a positive-electrode active material and a coating layer covering the positive-electrode active material, wherein the coating layer contains niobium and carbon, the positive-electrode active material and the coating layer constitute a coated active material, and the ratio Nb/C of the niobium content to the carbon content in a surface layer portion of the coated active material is 0.11 or more based on the atomic ratio.

Provided are a positive active material for a lithium secondary battery, a method of preparing the positive active material, a positive electrode for a lithium secondary battery including the positive active material, and a lithium secondary battery including a positive electrode including the positive active material, in which the positive active material may include a nickel-based lithium metal oxide secondary particle including a plurality of large primary particles, the nickel-based lithium metal oxide secondary particle may have a hollow structure having a pore inside, a size of each of the large primary particles may be in a range of about 2 micrometers (μm) to about 6 μm, and a size of the nickel-based lithium metal oxide secondary particle may be in a range of about 10 μm to about 18 μm.

Provided are a cathode active material having a suitable particle size and high uniformity, and a nickel composite hydroxide as a precursor of the cathode active material. When obtaining nickel composite hydroxide by a crystallization reaction, nucleation is performed by controlling a nucleation aqueous solution that includes a metal compound, which includes nickel, and an ammonium ion donor so that the pH value at a standard solution temperature of 25° C. becomes 12.0 to 14.0, after which, particles are grown by controlling a particle growth aqueous solution that includes the formed nuclei so that the pH value at a standard solution temperature of 25° C. becomes 10.5 to 12.0, and so that the pH value is lower than the pH value during nucleation. The crystallization reaction is performed in a non-oxidizing atmosphere at least in a range after the processing time exceeds at least 40% of the total time of the particle growth process from the start of the particle growth process where the oxygen concentration is 1 volume % or less, and with controlling an agitation power requirement per unit volume into a range of 0.5 kW/m.sup.3 to 4 kW/m.sup.3 at least during the nucleation process.

A process for the recovery of lithium from waste lithium ion batteries or parts thereof is disclosed. The process comprising the steps of A) providing a crude lithium hydroxide as a solid, which contains fluoride; and (B) dissolving the crude lithium hydroxide solid with a lower alcohol such as methanol or ethanol provides good separation of lithium in high purity.