The present invention relates to a lithium composite oxide having improved stability and electrical characteristics as a positive electrode material by inhibiting an interfacial side reaction in the lithium composite oxide and improving the stability of a crystal structure and ion conductivity, and a lithium secondary battery including the same.

Disclosed herein is a process for the manufacture of coated cathode active materials including the steps of: (a) providing a particulate electrode active material based on a lithiated oxide according to general formula Li.sub.1+xTM.sub.1xO.sub.2 and x is in the range of from zero to 0.2, (b) treating said particulate electrode active material with water, and subsequently removing the majority of the water by a solid-liquid separation method, thereby obtaining a solid residue, (c) treating the solid residue material from step (b) with a source of boron and with at least one compound of Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba, and Zn selected from the respective sulfates, oxides, and hydroxides, thereby obtaining an intermediate, and (d) treating the intermediate obtained from step (c) thermally.

A method for delithiating a lithium and transition metal nitride. The method involves mixing an oxidising agent with the lithium and transition metal nitride and recovering the material obtained. The transition metal may be Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, or a mixture thereof. The material obtained by the method may be used as a negative electrode material for a lithium-ion battery.

Provided is a positive active material for a rechargeable lithium battery including a nickel-based composite oxide having a nickel content of greater than or equal to 60 mol % relative to a total amount of metal excluding lithium and a coating layer on the surface of the nickel-based composite oxide, wherein the coating layer includes lithium fluoride (LiF) and metal fluoride produced by firing a metal oxide and a fluorine-based organic material.

A precursor for lithium secondary battery positive electrode active materials containing at least nickel, in which the following formula (1) is satisfied.

0.20 Dmin/Dmax (1)

(in the formula (1), Dmin is a minimum particle diameter (m) in a cumulative particle size distribution curve obtained by measuring the precursor for lithium secondary battery positive electrode active materials with a laser diffraction-type particle size distribution measuring instrument, and Dmax is a maximum particle diameter (m) in the cumulative particle size distribution curve obtained by the measurement with the laser diffraction-type particle size distribution measuring instrument.)

A positive electrode for a rechargeable lithium battery includes a positive active material including small particle diameter monolith particles having a particle diameter of about 1 m to about 8 m and including a first nickel-based lithium metal oxide, and large particle diameter secondary particles having a particle diameter of about 10 m to about 20 m and including a second nickel-based lithium metal oxide. An X-ray diffraction peak intensity ratio (I(003)/I(104)) of the positive electrode is greater than or equal to about 3. A rechargeable lithium battery includes the positive electrode.

A positive active material for a lithium secondary battery, a method of preparing the same, and a lithium secondary battery including the positive active material. The positive active material includes a core part and a shell part that include a nickel-based composite oxide, and a content of nickel in the core part is larger than that in the shell part.

A positive electrode active material for a lithium secondary battery includes a lithium transition metal complex oxide that has a spinel crystalline structure. This lithium transition metal complex oxide includes: manganese and nickel as main transition metal elements; titanium and iron as additive transition metal elements; and oxygen and fluorine.

The lithium rechargeable battery of the present invention is provided with a current collector and an active material layer containing active material particles 10 supported on this current collector. The active material particles 10 are secondary particles 14 in which a plurality of primary particles 12 of a lithium transition metal oxide are aggregated, and have a hollow structure that contains a hollow section 16 formed inside the secondary particle 14 and a shell section 15 that surrounds the hollow section 16. A through hole 18 that penetrates from the outside to the hollow section 16 is formed in the secondary particle 14. The ratio (A/B) in a powder x-ray diffraction pattern of the active material particles 10, where A is the full width at half maximum of the diffraction peak obtained for the (003) plane and B is the full width at half maximum of the diffraction peak obtained for the (104) plane, satisfies the equation (A/B)0.7.

Provided is a precursor of a positive electrode active material for non-aqueous electrolyte secondary batteries which allows a non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery to have excellent battery characteristics. A manganese composite hydroxide is obtained by adjusting the pH value of an aqueous solution for nucleation containing cobalt and/or manganese to 7.5 to 11.1 on the basis of a liquid temperature of 25 C. to form plate-shaped crystal nuclei, and adjusting the pH value of a slurry for particle growth containing the plate-shaped crystal nuclei to 10.5 to 12.5 on the basis of a liquid temperature of 25 C., and supplying a mixed aqueous solution including a metal compound containing at least manganese to the slurry, thereby performing particle growth of the plate-shaped crystal nuclei.