Doped cobaltosic oxide and preparation method thereof
Technical Field
The invention belongs to the field of lithium ion battery materials, and particularly relates to doped cobaltosic oxide and a preparation method thereof.
Background
With the iterative upgrade of products in the digital field and the rapid development of emerging electronic products such as various high-end models, unmanned planes and the like, the requirements on the light weight and the battery capacity of the lithium battery are higher and higher. The lithium cobaltate positive electrode material has an important application direction in the digital field, and along with the increasingly strict performance requirements of electronic products on lithium batteries, the update iteration of the lithium cobaltate positive electrode material is particularly important. The performance of the lithium cobaltate positive electrode material depends on the performance of a precursor to a great extent, and in order to prepare a high-energy-density positive electrode material, on one hand, a voltage platform of the positive electrode material is improved through a doping technology, and on the other hand, the compaction density of the positive electrode material is improved through a large and small particle matching technology. The lithium cobaltate positive electrode material is mainly prepared by calcining cobaltosic oxide and lithium carbonate at a certain temperature, with the intensive research on doping technology and particle matching technology, the technical modification of the lithium cobaltate positive electrode material is gradually changed from sintering modification research to cobaltosic oxide precursor synthesis technology and performance research, so that the deepening of the cobaltosic oxide research has important significance on the improvement of the performance of the lithium cobaltate.
The preparation method of cobaltosic oxide comprises spray pyrolysis, liquid phase precipitation-thermal decomposition and the like, wherein the cobaltosic oxide prepared by the liquid phase precipitation-thermal decomposition method mainly adopts an intermittent process to firstly synthesize cobalt carbonate, and then prepare the porous cobaltosic oxide by thermal decomposition, such as the preparation method of compact crystal type small-particle-size spherical cobalt carbonate mentioned in Chinese patent CN2020100308075 and the preparation method of cobaltosic oxide mentioned in Chinese patent CN106882843A, the prepared cobalt carbonate has relative large particle size, and secondary particles are not easy to sinter into single crystals. The existing preparation technology of single crystal cobaltosic oxide is generally prepared by a spray pyrolysis method, the single crystal cobaltosic oxide is mainly obtained by pyrolyzing a cobalt chloride solution by the spray pyrolysis method, but the method can cause a large amount of hydrogen chloride gas to be generated, the tail gas treatment is strict, and the spray pyrolysis method cannot be applied to the preparation of doped single crystal cobaltosic oxide.
At present, most of lithium cobaltate anode materials are prepared from small polycrystalline particle cobaltosic oxide of conventional secondary spherical particles, but the small polycrystalline particle raw materials have high pores, and because the particle size is small, cobalt and doping elements are easy to form a phase separation state in a sintering process, so that the distribution of the doping elements is uneven, and the anode materials prepared by utilizing polycrystalline aggregates have the phenomena of low compaction density, serious gas generation of batteries and the like.
Disclosure of Invention
The invention aims to solve the technical problem of overcoming the defects and shortcomings in the background technology and provides doped cobaltosic oxide and a preparation method thereof.
In order to solve the technical problems, the technical scheme provided by the invention is as follows:
the doped cobaltosic oxide is in the shape of single crystal particles or quasi-single crystal aggregates, the primary crystal grain size of the doped cobaltosic oxide is 200-500nm, and the half-peak width of a 311 crystal face is 0.2-0.6.
The doped cobaltosic oxide preferably has a particle size of D10≥1μm,D50=2-6μm,D90Less than or equal to 10 mu m and the particle size distribution (D)90-D10)/D50≤1.1。
The doped cobaltosic oxide preferably has a specific surface area BET of 0.5-1.5, wherein the tap density TD is 1.5g/cm or more3The apparent density is more than or equal to 1.1g/cm3。
Preferably, the doped cobaltosic oxide has a molecular formula of CoxAlyMzO4Wherein M is selected from at least one of Mg, Ti, Zr, Nb, La, Y, Ni and Mn, x is more than or equal to 2 and less than or equal to 3, Y is more than 0 and less than or equal to 0.5, z is more than or equal to 0 and less than or equal to 0.5, and 8x +9Y +6z is 24.
As a general inventive concept, the present invention also provides a method for preparing the doped cobaltosic oxide, comprising the following steps:
(1) preparing a soluble mixed salt solution and an ammonium bicarbonate solution according to a stoichiometric ratio, wherein the soluble mixed salt solution refers to a mixed solution of soluble cobalt salt and soluble salt containing doping elements;
(2) adding pure water into the reaction kettle as a base solution, and adjusting the pH value of the base solution to 7.1 +/-0.05;
(3) adding a soluble mixed salt solution and an ammonium bicarbonate solution into a reaction kettle simultaneously for reaction by adopting a parallel-flow liquid adding mode, and controlling the pH value of a reaction system to be 7.1 +/-0.05 in the reaction process;
(4) standing and clarifying the slurry overflowing from the full liquid level of the reaction kettle, removing supernatant, controlling the solid content of the slurry, returning the slurry to the reaction kettle again for reaction, and stopping feeding until the reaction reaches the target granularity;
(5) and (4) washing, drying, sieving and calcining the material obtained after the reaction in the step (4) to obtain the doped cobaltosic oxide.
The preparation process accelerates the growth rate of the particles by controlling the lower and constant pH value, and can effectively promote the dispersion of the particles and prevent agglomeration by controlling the high rotating speed under the relatively higher growth rate, so that the co-precipitation effect of the doping elements is more uniform. While the prior art usually adopts a relatively high pH value, which aims to control a low growth rate and prevent agglomeration, the applicant finds through research that the growth rate is too slow, which is not beneficial to realizing uniform doping of aluminum, and in the coprecipitation process, the change of the pH value will also destroy the uniformity of element doping; therefore, the pH value is controlled to be very low and constant, and meanwhile, the combination of high rotating speed, low temperature and lower pH value is adopted, namely, the problem that particles are easy to agglomerate in the growth process is solved by utilizing the high rotating speed, the proper nucleation speed is provided by utilizing the lower temperature control, and the small-particle doped single crystal or quasi-single crystal cobaltosic oxide with better appearance and more uniform aluminum doping can be obtained on the premise that agglomeration does not occur in the coprecipitation reaction process.
In the preparation method, preferably, in the step (4), the solid content of the slurry is controlled to be 40-50%, and the target particle size of the slurry in the reaction kettle is 2-4 μm.
In the preparation method, preferably, in the step (3), the temperature in the reaction process is 40-50 ℃, and the stirring speed of the reaction kettle stirrer is 800-1000 rpm. Further preferably, the temperature in the reaction process is 40-45 ℃, and the rotating speed of the stirrer of the reaction kettle is 800-.
In the preparation method, preferably, in the step (1), the concentration of the soluble mixed salt solution is 100-140g/L, and the concentration of the ammonium bicarbonate is 200-240 g/L;
in the step (3), the flow rate of the soluble mixed salt solution introduced into the reaction kettle is 80-100 mL/min. Further preferably, the flow rate of the mixed salt solution is 85 + -5 ml/min.
Preferably, in the step (5), the washing means that the material is washed by hot pure water and ammonium bicarbonate solution alternately, the temperature of the hot water is 70-80 ℃, and the concentration of the ammonium bicarbonate solution is 80-120 g/L; the drying temperature is 100-120 ℃.
In the preparation method, preferably, in the step (5), the calcining refers to sintering at 350 ℃ for 2-3 hours at constant temperature, and then sintering at 900-950 ℃ for 3-9 hours; the calcination process is carried out in an air atmosphere, and the gas flow is 10-15L/h.
Compared with the prior art, the invention has the advantages that:
(1) the doped cobaltosic oxide is in the shape of a single crystal or quasi-single crystal aggregate, has obviously higher compaction density compared with the conventional cobaltosic oxide in the shape of a secondary aggregate, and provides guarantee for synthesizing a lithium cobaltate anode material with high energy density.
(2) According to the preparation method, the growth rate of the particles is accelerated by controlling the lower and constant pH value, the dispersion of the particles can be effectively promoted by controlling the high rotating speed under the relatively higher growth rate, the agglomeration is prevented, the co-precipitation effect of the doping elements is more uniform, and the small-particle doped single crystal or quasi-single crystal cobaltosic oxide with better appearance and more uniform Al doping is obtained.
(3) According to the preparation method, the technological characteristics of high rotating speed and slurry recycling are adopted, so that the cobalt carbonate crystal nucleus generated in the wet synthesis technological process is finer, the cobaltosic oxide semi-finished product has smaller granularity, better morphology uniformity and more compact particles.
(4) According to the preparation method, cobalt and aluminum are better fused in the sintering process of the cobalt carbonate through sintering at a high temperature section, and the flaky segregation morphology is easier to form compared with the situation that the cobaltosic oxide doped with aluminum in the secondary spherical particles, but Al in the single crystal or quasi-single crystal cobaltosic oxide does not have segregation, and the Al-doped element is easier to be doped into the cobaltosic oxide crystal lattice by combining a coprecipitation process and a sintering technology.
Drawings
FIG. 1 is a schematic view of 50000 times of electron microscope showing doped cobalt carbonate particles prepared in example 1 of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a particle size distribution diagram of doped cobaltosic oxide particles prepared in example 1 of the present invention.
Fig. 3 is a schematic view of the doped cobaltosic oxide particles prepared in example 1 of the present invention under a 50000 times electron microscope.
FIG. 4 is a schematic view of the doped cobaltosic oxide particles prepared in example 1 of the present invention under an electron microscope of 20000 times.
Fig. 5 is a schematic view of the doped cobaltosic oxide particles prepared in example 1 of the present invention under a 10000 times electron microscope.
FIG. 6 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the doped cobaltosic oxide particles prepared in example 1 of the present invention.
FIG. 7 is a distribution diagram of the uniformity of the doped cobaltosic oxide profile element obtained in example 1 of the present invention.
FIG. 8 is a structural analysis diagram of the doped cobaltosic oxide particles prepared in example 1 of the present invention.
FIG. 9 is a schematic view of 50000 times electron microscope showing doped cobalt carbonate particles prepared in example 2 of the present invention.
FIG. 10 is a particle size distribution diagram of doped cobaltosic oxide particles prepared in example 2 of the present invention.
Fig. 11 is a schematic view of the doped cobaltosic oxide particles prepared in example 2 of the present invention under a 50000 times electron microscope.
Fig. 12 is a schematic view of the doped cobaltosic oxide particles prepared in example 2 under an electron microscope of 30000 times.
Fig. 13 is a schematic view of the doped cobaltosic oxide particles prepared in example 2 of the present invention under a 10000 times electron microscope.
FIG. 14 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the doped cobaltosic oxide particles prepared in example 2 of the present invention.
FIG. 15 is a distribution diagram of the uniformity of the doped cobaltosic oxide profile prepared in example 2 of the present invention.
Fig. 16 is a structural analysis diagram of the doped cobaltosic oxide particle phase prepared in example 2 of the present invention.
FIG. 17 is a schematic view of 50000 times electron microscope showing cobalt carbonate particles prepared in comparative example 1 of the present invention.
FIG. 18 is a graph showing the particle size distribution of the cobaltosic oxide particles obtained in comparative example 1 of the present invention.
FIG. 19 is a schematic view of the inventive cobaltosic oxide particles prepared in comparative example 1 under a 50000 times electron microscope.
FIG. 20 is a schematic view of the Cobaltosic oxide particles prepared in comparative example 1 of the present invention under a 30000 times electron microscope.
FIG. 21 is a schematic view of a cobaltosic oxide particle prepared in comparative example 1 of the present invention under an electron microscope of 10000 times.
FIG. 22 is a schematic sectional view of the cobaltosic oxide particles obtained in comparative example 1 of the present invention.
FIG. 23 is a distribution diagram of uniformity of elements in a cross section of cobaltosic oxide prepared in comparative example 1 of the present invention.
FIG. 24 is a diagram showing a structural analysis of a granular phase of cobaltosic oxide obtained in comparative example 1 of the present invention.
Detailed Description
In order to facilitate an understanding of the invention, the invention will be described more fully and in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and preferred embodiments, but the scope of the invention is not limited to the specific embodiments below.
Unless otherwise defined, all terms of art used hereinafter have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention.
Unless otherwise specifically stated, various raw materials, reagents, instruments, equipment and the like used in the present invention are commercially available or can be prepared by existing methods.
Example 1:
the invention relates to a doped cobaltosic oxide precursor with a molecular formula of Co2.97Al0.027O4The appearance is single crystal particles, the size of primary crystal grain is 400nm, the half-peak width of 311 crystal face is 0.25, and the particle size D of doped cobaltosic oxide10=2.72μm,D50=4.52μm,D906.73 μm; particle size distribution (D)90-D10)/D500.88, tap density TD 1.77g/cm3Apparent density of 1.25g/cm3,(BET-2.5)/(TD-1.5)=0.91。
The preparation method of the row-doped cobaltosic oxide precursor in the embodiment comprises the following steps:
(1) according to Co2.97Al0.027O4Preparing a soluble mixed salt solution with the total concentration of metal ions (aluminum ions and cobalt ions) of 110g/l according to the stoichiometric ratio;
(2) adding 10L of pure water into a 50L reaction kettle to serve as reaction kettle bottom liquid, pumping a certain amount of ammonium bicarbonate solution into the reaction kettle bottom liquid, and adjusting the pH value of the bottom liquid to 7.1;
(3) starting a stirring device of the reaction kettle, controlling the rotating speed at 800rpm, controlling the temperature of the reaction kettle at 45 ℃, simultaneously pumping 220g/L ammonium bicarbonate solution and 110g/L mixed salt solution into the reaction kettle for reaction, wherein the flow rate of the mixed salt solution is 85mL/min, and the flow rate of the ammonium bicarbonate is adjusted along with the constancy of pH 7.1;
(4) with the continuous feeding, after the liquid level of the reaction kettle is full, standing the overflowed slurry for 20min, removing part of supernatant liquid, controlling the solid content of the slurry to be 40%, returning the slurry to the reaction kettle again, and repeating the step once every 1 hour;
(5) stopping feeding after the reaction reaches the target particle size D50 of 2.5 mu m, discharging the slurry from an overflow port at the bottom of the reaction kettle, mixing the collected material with the overflow material, and then alternately washing the mixture by a centrifuge by using pure water and ammonium bicarbonate, wherein the temperature of the pure water is controlled at 70 ℃, and the concentration of the ammonium bicarbonate is controlled at 110g/l until the pH value of the washing water is less than 8; then drying the washed material by a hot air oven at the drying temperature of 110 ℃, wherein the moisture content of the dried material is less than 10%, and screening the dried material by a 325-mesh screen to obtain a screened material; the picture of the screened material under the 50000 times electron microscope is shown in figure 1;
(6) calcining the screened material obtained in the step (5) in an air atmosphere (with the gas flow rate of 12L/h), calcining for 3 hours at 350 ℃ and then calcining for 4 hours at 950 ℃, screening the obtained powder to obtain doped cobaltosic oxide, and sealing and storing.
The scanning electron microscope images of the doped cobaltosic oxide prepared in this example are shown in fig. 3-5, which shows that the doped cobaltosic oxide is in a single crystal shape, the primary particle size is 400nm, and the secondary particle size D is10=2.72μm,D50=4.52μm,D906.73 μm; particle size distribution (D)90-D10)/D500.88 (see particle size analysis of fig. 2), tap density 1.77g/cm3Specific surface area of 2.7m2(g) apparent density of 1.25g/cm3。
The cross-sectional view of the doped cobaltosic oxide prepared in this embodiment is shown in fig. 6, and the element uniformity distribution of the cross-sectional view is shown in fig. 7, which shows that the aluminum element doped in the precursor has a uniform distribution.
The XRD spectrum of the doped cobaltosic oxide prepared in this example is shown in fig. 8, from which it can be seen that the half-peak width of the 311 crystal plane of the precursor is 0.25.
Example 2:
the invention relates to doped cobaltosic oxide with a molecular formula of Co2.97Al0.02Mg0.01O4The shape of the material is like a monocrystal aggregate, the size of primary crystal grain is 300nm, the half-peak width of 311 crystal face is 0.3, and the granularity of doped cobaltosic oxide is D10=2.22μm,D50=4.3μm,D906.42 μm; particle size distribution (D)90-D10)/D500.97, tap density TD 2.05g/cm3Apparent density of 1.25g/cm3,(BET-2.5)/(TD-1.5)=0.73。
The preparation method of the doped cobaltosic oxide of the embodiment comprises the following steps:
(1) according to Co2.97Al0.02Mg0.01O4Preparing a soluble mixed salt solution with the total concentration of metal ions (cobalt ions and doped metal ions) of 110 g/l;
(2) adding 10L of pure water into a 50L reaction kettle to serve as reaction kettle bottom liquid, pumping a certain amount of ammonium bicarbonate solution into the reaction kettle bottom liquid, and adjusting the pH value of the bottom liquid to 7.1;
(3) starting a stirring device of the reaction kettle, controlling the rotating speed at 900rpm, controlling the temperature of the reaction kettle at 45 ℃, simultaneously pumping 230g/l of ammonium bicarbonate and 110g/l of mixed salt solution into the reaction kettle for reaction, wherein the flow rate of the mixed salt solution is 90ml/min, and the flow rate of the ammonium bicarbonate is adjusted along with the constancy of pH 7.15;
(4) keeping the overflowed slurry still for 20min along with the continuous feeding, removing part of supernatant, controlling the solid content of the slurry to be 45%, and returning the slurry to the reaction kettle again; this process was repeated every 1 hour;
(5) discharging the slurry from an overflow port at the bottom of the reaction kettle after the reaction reaches the target granularity D50 of 2.5 mu m, mixing the collected material with the overflow material, and washing by a centrifuge by using pure water and ammonium bicarbonate alternately, wherein the temperature of the pure water is controlled at 70 ℃, and the concentration of the ammonium bicarbonate is controlled at 110g/l until the pH of the washing water is less than 8;
(6) drying the washing material obtained in the step (5) by a hot air oven (the drying temperature is 110 ℃), controlling the moisture of the dried material to be less than 10%, and screening the dried material by a 325-mesh screen to obtain a screened material; the photograph of the sieved material under a 50000-fold electron microscope is shown in figure 9;
(7) calcining the screened material in air atmosphere (gas flow is 12L/h), calcining for 3 hours at 350 ℃ and then calcining for 4 hours at 950 ℃, screening the obtained powder to obtain doped cobaltosic oxide, and sealing and storing.
Scanning electron micrographs of the doped cobaltosic oxide prepared in this example are shown in fig. 11-13, which show that the doped cobaltosic oxide has a single crystal-like morphology with a primary particle size of 300nm and a secondary particle size D10=2.22μm,D50=4.3μm,D906.42 μm; particle size distribution (D)90-D10)/D500.97 (see particle size analysis of fig. 10), tap density 2.05g/cm3Specific surface area of 2.9m2(g) apparent density of 1.25g/cm3。
Fig. 14 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the doped cobaltosic oxide prepared in this embodiment, fig. 15 is an element uniformity distribution diagram of the doped cobaltosic oxide prepared in this embodiment, and fig. 16 is an XRD (x-ray diffraction) pattern of the doped cobaltosic oxide prepared in this embodiment, which shows that the half-peak width of the 311 crystal plane is 0.3.
Comparative example 1:
the molecular formula of the doped cobaltosic oxide of the comparative example is Co2.97Al0.03O4。
The preparation method of the cobaltosic oxide of the comparative example comprises the following steps:
(1) preparing a soluble mixed salt solution with the total concentration of metal ions (cobalt ions and aluminum ions) of 110g/L according to the stoichiometric ratio of the molecular formula;
(2) adding 10L of pure water into a 50L reaction kettle to serve as a reaction kettle bottom solution, and simultaneously adding 5L of ammonium bicarbonate;
(3) starting a stirring device of the reaction kettle, controlling the rotating speed at 800rpm and the temperature of the reaction kettle at 45 ℃, simultaneously adding 220g/L of ammonium bicarbonate and mixed salt solution into the reaction kettle for reaction, wherein the flow rate of the mixed salt solution is 86mL/min, and the flow rate of the ammonium bicarbonate is 95 mL/min;
(4) stopping feeding when the liquid level is full of the reaction kettle along with the reaction, standing, extracting supernatant after the reaction kettle is clarified, and returning the supernatant to the reaction kettle again;
(5) repeating the step (4) until the reaction reaches the target particle size D50 of 3.5 μm, discharging the slurry from an overflow port at the bottom of the reaction kettle, passing the collected material through a centrifugal machine, and alternately washing the collected material by using pure water and ammonium bicarbonate, wherein the temperature of the pure water is controlled at 70 ℃, and the concentration of the ammonium bicarbonate is controlled at 110g/L until the pH of the washing water is less than 8;
(6) drying the washing material obtained in the step (5) by a hot air oven at the drying temperature of 110 ℃, wherein the moisture content of the dried material is less than 10%, and screening the dried material by a 325-mesh screen to obtain a screened material; the picture of the sieved material under the 50000 times electron microscope is shown in figure 17;
(7) calcining the screened material in air atmosphere (gas flow is 12L/h), calcining for 3 hours at 350 ℃ and then calcining for 4 hours at 950 ℃, screening the obtained powder to obtain cobaltosic oxide, and sealing and storing.
The scanning electron micrographs of the cobaltosic oxide prepared in this comparative example are shown in FIGS. 19-21, which show that the doped cobaltosic oxide is in a polycrystalline structure with a primary particle size of 200nm and a secondary particle size D of the doped cobaltosic oxide10=2.54μm,D50=5.06μm,D9010.37 μm; particle size distribution (D)90-D10)/D501.54 (see particle size analysis of fig. 18), the tap density of the tricobalt tetraoxide was 1.77g/cm3Specific surface area of 5.2m2(g) apparent density of 1.25g/cm3。
The schematic cross-sectional view of the doped cobaltosic oxide prepared by the comparative example is shown in fig. 22, the distribution diagram of the element uniformity is shown in fig. 23, and it can be seen that the distribution uniformity of the aluminum element doped by the precursor is obviously inferior to that of example 1, because the difference of cobaltosic oxide is caused by the difference of the particle size and morphology of cobalt carbonate.
The XRD of the doped cobaltosic oxide prepared by the comparative example is shown in figure 24, and the half-width of the 311 crystal plane is 0.25.