Effect of rice husk derived activated carbon surface coating on NMC 811 characteristics and performance as lithium-ion battery cathode

Abstract

Nickel manganese cobalt with high nickel content (LiNi_0.8Mn_0.1Co_0.1O₂, NMC 811) is known for its high capacity. However, it is prone to air which could lead to structural degradation and result in capacity fading. Surface coating with carbon is known to tackle this issue. In this work, rice husk is utilized as a renewable and cheap carbon source for the surface coating material of NMC 811. Rice husk was carbonized and activated using sodium hydroxide. NMC 811 was synthesized using solution combustion and then coated with rice husk via a solid state method followed by calcination. The results showed that adding activated carbon derived from rice husk to NMC 811 did not alter its structure nor morphology, but increased conductivity and lithium-ion diffusion. In this work, 5 wt% rice husk derived activated carbon surface coated NMC 811 provided the highest capacity of 44.5063 mAh/g.