CHAPTER 2. Layered Ni-rich Cathode Materials

Recent lithium-ion battery (LIB) technologies power electric vehicles (EVs) to run approximately 220 miles in a single charge, and further effort to increase the energy density of LIBs is being made to run LIB-mounted EVs up to 300 miles in the next few years. Among several important components of LIBs, cathode materials play a significant role in contributing to cost, safety issues, and more importantly energy density. For this concern, Ni-rich cathode materials are indispensable because of their high capacity, reaching over 200 mAh g−1. To commercialize Ni-rich cathode material, tremendous work has been carried out to stabilize the crystal structure and minimize the side reaction with electrolytes, namely, doping, surface modification from nano- to microscale, densification of secondary particles, morphological alternation of primary particles in a secondary particle, and so on. The approaches that have pursued will be discussed in this chapter followed by a perspective.