The present invention relates to a cobalt-free positive electrode active material having improved thermal stability and electrochemical properties, and a lithium secondary battery using the same.

This application provides a lithium-nickel-manganese-based composite oxide material, where a K value of the lithium-nickel-manganese-based composite oxide material ranges from 1 to 2, and the K value is calculated based on the following formula: K=D.sub.v50/d.sub.v50, where d.sub.v50 is a volume median crystallite diameter of crystal particles of the lithium-nickel-manganese-based composite oxide material; and D.sub.v50 is a volume median particle diameter of the lithium-nickel-manganese-based composite oxide material.

The present disclosure relates to a cathode additive, a method for preparing the same, and a cathode and a lithium secondary battery including the same. More specifically, one embodiment of the present disclosure provides a cathode additive that can offset an irreversible capacity imbalance, increase the initial charge capacity of a cathode, and simultaneously inhibit the generation of a gas in a battery.

Electrode active material comprising (A) a core material according to general formula Li.sub.1+x1TM.sub.1−x1O.sub.2 wherein TM is a combination of Ni and at least one of Mn, Co and Al, and, optionally, at least one more metal selected from Mg, Ti, Zr, Nb, Ta, and W, and x1 is in the range of from −0.05 to 0.2, and (B) particles of cobalt compound(s) and of aluminum compound(s) and of titanium compound(s) or zirconium compound(s) wherein the molar ratio of lithium to cobalt in said particles is in the range of from zero to below 1 and wherein said particles are attached to the surface of the core material.

The present disclosure relates to a positive active material, a method of preparing the same, and a lithium secondary battery having a positive electrode including the positive active material, the positive active material including: a lithium transition metal oxide having a portion of Li substituted by Na, and including Ni and Co; and a cobalt-containing coating layer arranged on the surface of the lithium transition metal oxide particle, wherein the lithium transition metal oxide particle includes a concentration gradient region in which the concentration of Co decreases in a direction from the surface to the center of the particle.

The present disclosure relates to a positive electrode active material, a method of preparing the same, and a lithium secondary battery having a positive electrode including the same. The positive electrode active material includes: a lithium transition metal oxide particle in which a portion of Li is substituted with Na, and which includes Ni and Co atoms, wherein the lithium transition metal oxide particle includes a concentration gradient region in which the concentration of Co atoms decreases from the surface toward the center of the particle.

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.