N, F Co-Doped Carbon Encapsulated Hollow LiFePO4 Nanoshuttles for Lithium-Ion Batteries

Abstract

As a mainstream commercial cathode material for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), LiFePO₄ (LFP) is still limited by its inherently low electronic conductivity and slow diffusion kinetics. Therefore, a unique and innovative synthesis strategy must be devised to overcome these deficiencies. Hereby, we successfully synthesized N,F co-doped carbon encapsulated hollow LFP nanoshuttles (LFP-NFC) using an iron-based metal–organic framework (Fe-MOF) as the precursor. Benefitting from the hollow and porous structure derived from Fe-MOF, as-synthesized LFP-NFC effectively shortens the lithium-ion diffusion path and accelerates the ion diffusion speed. Moreover, the carbon layer doped with N and F heteroatoms induces more active sites for lithium storage and improves the electronic conductivity. The optimized LFP-NFC exhibits excellent electrochemical performance with a specific discharge capacity of 162.74 mAh g^–1 at 0.1 C and a superior rate capability (102 mAh g^–1 even at 10 C).