Electrochemical Performances of Li₂MnSiO₄ Cathodes Synthesized by Mechanical Alloying Process

We report the fabrication and electrochemical properties of Li₂MnSiO₄ powders produced by various solid-state reactions, such as ball-, attrition-, and bead-milling. Li₂MnSiO₄ powders prepared by bead-milling had the smallest particle sizes (∼100 nm) and the largest amount of surface carbon (∼20 wt%), which were produced by adding sucrose during milling process. The surface carbon layer can improve electronic/ionic conductivity of Li₂MnSiO₄ as cathode material for lithium ion battery. As expected, the bead-milled Li₂MnSiO₄ powder electrode showed the best electrochemical performance of the electrode materials obtained by the various solid-state reactions. This is attributed to the small particle size and facile electronic transport through the conductive carbon layer on each Li₂MnSiO₄ particle.