There is provided a method for collecting and reusing an active material from positive electrode scrap. The method of reusing a positive electrode active material of the present disclosure includes (a) thermally treating a positive electrode scrap comprising an active material layer comprising nickel, cobalt and manganese on a current collector in air for thermal decomposition of a binder and a conductive material in the active material layer, to separate the current collector from the active material layer, and collecting an active material in the active material layer, (b) washing the active material collected form the step (a) with a lithium compound solution which is basic in an aqueous solution and drying, and (c) annealing the active material washed from the step (b) with an addition of a lithium precursor to obtain a reusable active material.

Provided are a cathode active material for a lithium secondary battery, a method of preparing the same, and a lithium secondary battery containing a cathode including the cathode active material, in which the cathode active material includes nickel-based lithium metal oxide containing single-crystal particles, and a particle size of the single-crystal particles is about 1 μm to about 8 μm, and a particle size distribution of the single-crystal particles expressed by (D90-D10)/D50 is 1.4 or less.

A method of producing an inorganic material (S10) according to the present invention includes a vitrification step (S12) of applying shearing stress and compressive stress to a mixed powder (MP) of a plurality of kinds of inorganic compound powders by using a ring ball mill mechanism (70) to vitrify at least a part of the mixed powder (MP); and a dispersion step (S13) of dispersing the vitrified mixed powder (MP) after the vitrification step (S12), where a combined step of the vitrification step (S12) and the dispersion step (S13) is performed a plurality of times to obtain a vitrified inorganic material powder from the mixed powder.

A lithium complex oxide and method of manufacturing the same, more particularly, a lithium complex oxide effective in improving the characteristics of capacity, resistance, and lifetime with reduced residual lithium and with different interplanar distances of crystalline structure between a primary particle locating in an internal part of secondary particle and a primary particle locating on the surface part of the secondary particle, and a method of preparing the same.

Process for making a lithiated oxide, said process comprising the following steps: (a) making a particulate hydroxide, oxide or oxyhydroxide of nickel, and, optionally, at least one of Co and Mn and, by combining an aqueous solution of sodium or potassium hydrox-ide with an aqueous solution containing a water-soluble salt of nickel and, optionally, a water-soluble salt of Co, Mn, Al, Ti, Zr, W, Mo, Ga, Nb, Ta, or Mg, (b) adding a source of lithium, (c) treating the mixture obtained from step (b) thermally at at least two different temperatures: (c1) at 300 to 500° C. under an atmosphere that may comprise oxygen, (c2) at 500 to 600° C. under an atmosphere of oxygen, wherein the temperature in step (c2) is set to be higher than in step (c1).

The invention relates to improved particulate lithium nickel oxide materials which are useful as cathode materials in lithium secondary batteries. The invention also provides processes for preparing such lithium nickel oxide materials, and electrodes and cells comprising the materials.

The present invention relates to a positive electrode active material and a lithium secondary battery including the same, and more particularly, to a positive electrode active material including a lithium composite oxide containing at least nickel and cobalt, wherein since the cobalt in the lithium composite oxide has a concentration gradient having at least different slopes from a surface portion toward a central portion, it is possible to improve the stability of particles not only in a surface portion of the lithium composite oxide but also in a central portion thereof, a positive electrode including the positive electrode active material, and a lithium secondary battery using the negative electrode.

The present invention relates to a positive electrode active material and a lithium secondary battery including the same, and more particularly, to a bimodal-type positive electrode active material including a first lithium composite oxide as a small particle and a second lithium composite oxide as a large particle, wherein the positive electrode active material may uniformly improve the particle stability of the small particle and the large particle by controlling a slope of a concentration gradient in which cobalt in the small particle and the large particle decreases from a surface portion toward a central portion, a positive electrode including the positive electrode active material, and a lithium secondary battery using the positive electrode.

There are provided a method of preparing an irreversible additive in which a content of a Li-based by-product such as unreacted lithium oxide generated in a process of preparing lithium nickel-based oxide is decreased, which may significantly reduce gelation of a composition including the irreversible additive, a cathode material including the irreversible additive prepared by the same, and a lithium secondary battery including the cathode material.

Provided is a positive electrode active material for non-aqueous electrolyte secondary batteries for making high capacity and high output compatible, non-aqueous electrolyte secondary batteries, having the positive electrode active material adopted thereto, and a production method for a positive electrode active material in which the positive electrode active material can be easily produced in an industrial scale. A positive electrode active material for non-aqueous electrolyte secondary batteries, contains: primary particles of a lithium nickel composite oxide represented by at least General Formula: Li.sub.zNi.sub.1-x-yCo.sub.xM.sub.yO.sub.2 (0.95≤z≤1.03, 0<x≤0.20, 0<y≤0.10, x+y≤0.20, and M is at least one type of element selected from Mg, Al, Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Nb, Zr, and Mo); and secondary particles configured by flocculating the primary particles, wherein an LiAl compound and an LiW compound are provided on surfaces of the primary particles.