What is claimed is a positive electrode active material for an all-solid-state lithium-ion battery composed of particles containing crystals of a lithium metal composite oxide,

wherein the lithium metal composite oxide has a layered structure and contains at least Li and a transition metal, and wherein, in the particles, in pore physical properties obtained from nitrogen adsorption isotherm measurement and nitrogen desorption isotherm measurement at a liquid nitrogen temperature, the total pore volume obtained from a nitrogen adsorption amount when the relative pressure (p/p.sub.0) of an adsorption isotherm is 0.99 is less than 0.0035 cm.sup.3/g.

There is provided a method of synthesizing a porous carbon-sulfur composite comprising the step of carbonizing a carbon material having a metal-organic framework (MOF) at a temperature of 800-1000° C. to produce a porous carbon, mixing and heating the porous carbon with sulfur to infuse the sulfur (melt diffusion) into the pores of the porous carbon and removing excess sulfur not infused into the pores or present on the surface of the porous carbon. There is also provided a cathode comprising the porous carbon-sulfur composite and a method of preparing the cathode by mixing with conductive carbon and a polymer binder. The cathode finds use in an electrochemical cell comprising a sodium or lithium anode.

A lithium cobalt-based oxide cathode active material powder having: —a primary phase comprising Li, Co, and O, and —a secondary phase comprising LiNaSO.sub.4, wherein the content of said LiNaSO.sub.4 secondary phase in said powder is of at least 0.4 wt. % and inferior or equal to 1.1 wt. % with respect to a total weight of the cathode active material powder, said cathode active material powder being characterized in that it has a S/Na atomic ratio superior or equal to 0.80 and inferior or equal to 1.20.

A production method is provided in which submicronic particles containing silicon are incorporated into a matrix, wherein, during the incorporation of the particles, the particles are in a compacted state with a bulk density of more than 0.10 grams per cubic centimeter, and the compacted particles have a specific surface area at least 70% of that of the particles considered separately without contact between each other.

The present invention provides: an electrode mixture manufacturing method comprising the processes of introducing a first binder, an electrode active material, and a conductive material into an extruder, performing a first mixing of the first binder, the electrode active material, and the conductive material in the extruder, additionally introducing a second binder into the extruder and performing a second mixing, and yielding an electrode mixture resulting from the first mixing and the second mixing; an electrode mixture manufactured thereby; and an electrode manufacturing method using the electrode mixture.

A composite containing phosphorus, lithium, iron, sulfur, and carbon as constituent elements wherein lithium sulfide (Li.sub.2S) is present in an amount of 90 mol % or more, and wherein the crystallite size calculated from the half-width of a diffraction peak based on the (111) plane of Li.sub.2S as determined by X-ray powder diffraction measurement is 80 nm or less. The composite exhibits a high capacity (in particular, a high discharge capacity) useful as an electrode active material for a lithium-ion secondary battery (in particular, a cathode active material for a lithium-ion secondary battery), without the need for stepwise pre-cycling treatment.

Powder comprising particles comprising a matrix material and silicon-based domains dispersed in this matrix material, whereby the matrix material is carbon or a material that can be thermally decomposed to carbon, whereby either part of the silicon-based domains are present in the form of agglomerates of silicon-based domains whereby at least 98% of these agglomerates have a maximum size of 3 μm or less, or the silicon-based domains are not at all agglomerated into agglomerates.

Provided is a carbon material capable of obtaining a non-aqueous secondary battery, which has high capacity, initial efficiency, and low charging resistance and is excellent in productivity. As a result thereof, a high-performance non-aqueous secondary battery is stably provided with efficiency. A composite carbon material for a non-aqueous secondary battery is provided, which contains at least a bulk mesophase artificial graphite particle (A) and graphite particle (B) having an aspect ratio of 5 or greater, and which is capable of absorbing and releasing lithium ions. A graphite crystal layered structure of the graphite particle (B) is arranged in the same direction as a direction of an outer peripheral surface of the bulk mesophase artificial graphite particle (A) at a part of a surface of the bulk mesophase artificial graphite particle (A), and an average circularity of the composite carbon material is 0.9 or greater.

The present invention provides an anode active material and a method for preparing the same, wherein the anode active material has a core-shell structure having formula (MOx-Liy)-C (here, M is a metal (or metalloid), x is greater than 0 and less than 1.5, and y is greater than 0 and less than 4) and including a core part containing an alloy of a metal (or metalloid) oxide-Li (MOx-Liy) and a shell part containing a carbon material coated on a surface of the core part, wherein the shell part contains lithium in an amount less than 5 atm % in the surface and the inner portion thereof. The anode active material can provide high capacity, excellent cycle characteristics, excellent volume expansion control capability, and high initial efficiency.

This invention relates to particulate electroactive materials consisting of a plurality of composite particles, wherein the composite particles comprise a plurality of silicon nanoparticles dispersed within a conductive carbon matrix. The particulate material comprises 40 to 65 wt % silicon, at least 6 wt % and less than 20% oxygen, and has a weight ratio of the total amount of oxygen and nitrogen to silicon in the range of from 0.1 to 0.45 and a weight ratio of carbon to silicon in the range of from 0.1 to 1. The particulate electroactive materials are useful as an active component of an anode in a metal ion battery.