Spherical iron phosphate prepared via liquid precipitation-spray drying method and its application as the precursor of lithium iron phosphate

Abstract

In this work, spherical iron phosphate was prepared via a simple liquid precipitation-spray drying method, which could overcome the disadvantages of hydrothermal method, such as harsh reaction conditions and the requirement of additives. The materials were characterized by means of XRD, FTIR, ICP. XPS, SEM, TEM. The results showed that as-prepared sample was amorphous FePO4·2H2O, which possess regular spherical shape, uniform particle size, small particle size (ca. 1.9 μm) and high specific surface area. The spherical iron phosphate was then converted into lithium iron phosphate material, which could exhibit excellent energy storage capacity. The first discharge specific capacity of the resulting lithium iron phosphate material is 155.6, 149, 119.1 and 103.8 mAh/g respectively at 0.5, 1, 5 and 10 C ratio. As a consequence, the present work opens a new strategy for the preparation of high performance lithium iron phosphate electrode materials.