Book

Every lithium-ion battery depends on a few crystalline solids, the cathode materials, that set how much energy a cell can store, how fast it can deliver it, how long it lasts and how safely it fails. This book follows those materials along the full path a materials scientist or process engineer actually walks: from crystal structure and defect chemistry, through synthesis and scale-up, to electrodes, cells and, finally, battery packs and stationary storage. Layered Oxide and Olivine Cathode Materials for Lithium-Ion Batteries builds on a simple conviction: a cathode cannot be understood in isolation from the way it is made and used. A phase-pure powder may still cycle badly if its particles are the wrong size, and a high-capacity material may be unusable if its surface reacts with the electrolyte at real operating voltages. The chapters therefore move deliberately between scales, from unit cell to particle, electrode, cell and system. Inside you will find: The crystal chemistry of layered oxides (LiCoO₂, LiNiO₂, NMC, NCA) and the olivine LiFePO₄, including cation mixing and phase transitions Batch-scale LFP production: milling, spray drying, calcination, jet milling, carbon coating and process control Electrode manufacturing, cell assembly and electrochemical testing, from galvanostatic cycling to impedance and GITT A practical characterisation toolbox: XRD and Rietveld refinement, electron microscopy, spectroscopy, in situ and operando XRD, and online electrochemical mass spectrometry An extended experimental case study on LiCoO₂, LiNiO₂ and LiNi₀.₅Co₀.₅O₂ made by aqueous sol-gel, with real synthesis, refinement, cycling and operando data Degradation, safety, battery management systems and links to sodium-ion, solid-state and semiconductor thin-film processing Written for graduate students, researchers entering the field from chemistry, physics or engineering, and process and quality engineers in cell-materials plants, the book develops everything from first principles and assumes only undergraduate chemistry.