Mitsui Minings & Melting Co., Ltd.

Shinya Kagei

Yoshimi Hata

Tetsuya Mitsumoto

Yanko Marinov Todorov

Hitohiko Ide

Natsumi Shibamura

Hideaki Matsushima

Daisuke Inoue

Yasuhiro Ochi

Keisuke Miyanohara

Kyohei Yamaguchi

Kiyotaka Yasuda

Daisuke Mukai

Toshikazu Matsuyama

Hidetoshi Inoue

Tsukasa Takahashi

Yasunori Tabira

Daisuke Washida

Shigeki Nakayama

Naoki Kumada

Kenji Sasaki

Akihiro Modeki

Munetoshi Yamaguchi

Mitsuhiro Wada

Tomohiro Sakata

Kazuhito Komatsu

Natsumi Ito

Satoru Taniguchi

Yoshima Hata

Tomoya Takeuchi

Shigeo Hirayama

Minoru Sakai

Provided is a novel negative electrode for nonaqueous electrolyte secondary batteries, which is capable of improving cycle characteristics and is also capable of suppressing aggregation of active material particles in a slurry. The negative electrode active material for nonaqueous electrolyte secondary batteries contains silicon and has a D50 of 0.1 &#x3bc;m to 5 &#x3bc;m, and an amount of water measured at 120&#xb0; C. to 300&#xb0; C. by the Karl-Fischer method (referred to as 'amount of water') per specific surface area (referred to as 'CS'), that is, the amount of water/CS, of 0.1 to 80 ppm/(m/cc).

Negative electrode active material for nonaqueous electrolyte secondary batteries

Proposed is a novel negative electrode for nonaqueous electrolyte secondary batteries in which the battery capacity does not decrease even when charging and discharging are repeated. Proposed is a silicon-containing negative electrode active material for nonaqueous electrolyte secondary batteries, comprising negative electrode active material particles which are provided with a surface layer containing carbon and titanium or aluminum on the entirety or a portion of the surface of the active material.

Provided is a lithium secondary battery using a positive electrode active material which operates at a charging voltage in a region exceeding 4.3 V, and a novel positive electrode active material for a lithium secondary battery which can further enhance the output characteristics. Proposed is a positive electrode active material for a lithium secondary battery including positive electrode active material particles obtained by equipping the entire surface or a part of the surface of lithium manganese-containing composite oxide particles (also referred to as the 'core particles') operating at a charging voltage in a region exceeding 4.3 V in a metal Li reference potential with a layer A containing at least Ti, Al, Zr, or two or more kinds of these, and C.

Positive electrode active material for lithium secondary battery

Provided is a spinel-type lithium-manganese-containing complex oxide that is related to a 5 V-class spinel, and with which output characteristics and charge-discharge cycle ability can be enhanced while suppressing gas generation. Proposed is a spinel-type lithium-manganese-containing complex oxide comprising at least Li, Mn, O, and two or more other elements, and having an operating potential of 4.5 V or more with respect to a metal Li reference potential, wherein: D50 is 0.5 to 9 &#x3bc;m; a value of (|mode diameter&#x2212;D50|/mode diameter)&#xd7;100 is 0 to 25%; a value of (|mode diameter&#x2212;D10|/mode diameter)&#xd7;100 is 20 to 58%; a ratio of average primary particle diameter/D, which is calculated from an average primary particle diameter calculated from a SEM image and the D, is 0.20 to 0.99; and a primary particle is a polycrystal.

Spinel-type lithium-manganese-containing complex oxide

Provided is a new 5 V class spinel-type lithium manganese-containing composite oxide which enables the expansion of a high potential capacity region and the suppression of gas generation. The 5 V class spinel-type lithium manganese-containing composite oxide has an operating potential of 4.5 V or more at a metal Li reference potential, and contains Li, Mn, O and two or more other elements. The spinel-type lithium manganese-containing composite oxide is characterized in that, in an electronic diffraction image from a transmission electron microscope (TEM), a diffraction spot observed in the Fd-3m structure as well as a diffraction spot not observed in the Fd-3m structure are confirmed.

5V-class spinel-type lithium-manganese-containing composite oxide

Provided is a new method for producing a positive electrode active material for lithium secondary batteries, by which even in the case of washing a spinel type lithium transition metal oxide with water or the like, the service life characteristics can be further enhanced, and the concentration of magnetic substances can be effectively reduced. Suggested is a method for producing a positive electrode active material for lithium secondary batteries, the method including a water washing step of bringing a powder of a spinel type lithium transition metal oxide into contact with a polar solvent and thereby washing the powder; and a drying step of subsequently drying the powder by heating the powder to 300&#xb0; C. to 700&#xb0; C. in an atmosphere containing oxygen.

Method of manufacturing a positive electrode active material for lithium secondary batteries

A positive electrode active material comprising a lithium metal composite oxide having a layered crystal structure provides a novel lithium metal composite oxide powder which can suppress the reaction with an electrolytic solution and raise the charge-discharge cycle ability of a battery, and can improve the output characteristics of a battery. A lithium metal composite oxide powder comprises a particle having a surface portion where one or a combination of two or more ('surface element A') of the group consisting of Al, Ti and Zr is present, on the surface of a particle comprising a lithium metal composite oxide having a layered crystal structure, wherein the amount of surface LiOH is smaller than 0.10% by weight, and the amount of surface LiCOis smaller than 0.25% by weight; in an X-ray diffraction pattern, the ratio of an integral intensity of the (003) plane of the lithium metal composite oxide to that of the (104) plane thereof is higher than 1.15; and the amount of S obtained by a measurement using ICP is smaller than 0.10% by weight of the lithium metal composite oxide powder (100% by weight).

Lithium metal composite oxide powder

Provided is a new 5 V-class spinel-type lithium-manganese-containing composite oxide capable of achieving both the expansion of a high potential capacity region and the suppression of gas generation. Proposed is the spinel-type lithium-manganese-containing composite oxide comprising Li, Mn, O and two or more other elements, and having an operating potential of 4.5 V or more at a metal Li reference potential, wherein a peak is present in a range of 14.0 to 16.5&#xb0; at 2&#x3b8;, in an X-ray diffraction pattern measured by a powder X-ray diffractometer (XRD) using CuK&#x3b1;1 ray.

Provided is a lithium metal composite oxide having a layered structure, which is particularly excellent as a positive electrode active material for batteries that are mounted on electric vehicles or hybrid vehicles. Proposed is a lithium metal composite oxide having a layered structure, which is represented by general formula Li(MnCoNi)O(0.00&#x2264;X&#x2264;0.07, 0.10&#x2264;&#x3b1;&#x2264;0.40, 0.10&#x2264;&#x3b2;&#x2264;0.40, and 0.30&#x2264;&#x3b3;&#x2264;0.75) and has a specific surface area of more than 2.0 m/g but 5.0 m/g or less and has an average particle size of the primary particles/crystallite size ratio of 5.7 to 18.5.

Lithium metal composite oxide having layered structure

Relating to a 5 V-class spinel type lithium nickel manganese-containing composite oxide having an operating potential of 4.5 V or more with respect to a Li metal reference potential, the present invention proposes a composite oxide being capable of improving cycle properties while suppressing the amount of gas generation under high temperature environments and of increasing thermodynamical stability of a positive electrode in a fully charged state. Proposed is a spinel type lithium nickel manganese-containing composite oxide represented by a general formula [Li(LiNiMnTiAlM)O] (where 0&#x3c;a, 0&#x3c;b, 0.30&#x2264;y&#x3c;0.60, 0&#x3c;z, 0&#x2264;&#x3b1;, 2-a-b-y-z-&#x3b1;&#x3c;1.7, 3&#x2264;b/a&#x2264;8, 0.1&#x3c;b+z+&#x3b1;, 0&#x3c;z/b&#x2264;1, and M represents one or two or more metal elements selected from the group consisting of Mg, Fe, Co, Ba, Cr, W, Mo, Y, Zr, Nb, and Ce).

Spinel type lithium nickel manganese-containing composite oxide

Provided is a novel positive electrode active material which can effectively suppress the quantity of gas generated by the reaction with an electrolytic solution. Proposed is a positive electrode active material for a lithium secondary battery including positive electrode active material particles obtained by equipping the entire surface or a part of a surface of lithium manganese-containing composite oxide particles (also referred to as the 'core particles') operating at a charging voltage in a region exceeding 4.3 V in a metal Li reference potential with a layer A containing at least titanium (Ti), aluminum (Al), zirconium (Zr), or two or more kinds of these.

The present invention relates to a positive electrode active material including a lithium metal composite oxide having a layer crystal structure, and provides a novel positive electrode active material for a lithium secondary cell, which can suppress the reaction with an electrolyte solution and can raise the charge-discharge cycle ability of the cell, and can make good the output characteristics of the cell. There is proposed a positive electrode active material for a lithium secondary cell, including an active particle having a surface portion where one or a combination of two or more (these are referred to as 'surface element A') of the group consisting of Al, Ti and Zr is present, on a surface of a particle including a lithium metal composite oxide having a layer crystal structure and represented by the general formula: Li1+xM1&#x2212;xO2 (wherein M is one or a combination of two or more (these are referred to as 'constituent element M') of the group consisting of Mn, Co, Ni, transition elements of from the third group elements to the 11th group elements of the periodic table, and typical elements up to the third period of the periodic table), wherein the ratio (CA/CM) of a concentration CA of the surface element A to a concentration CM of the constituent element M is higher than 0 and lower than 0.8, as measured by XPS; the amount of surface lithium impurity is smaller than 0.40% by weight; and in an X-ray diffraction pattern measured by XRD, the ratio (003)/(104) of an integral intensity of the peak originated from the (003) plane to an integral intensity of the peak originated from the (104) plane is higher than 1.15.

Positive electrode active material for lithium secondary cell

Provided is a new spinel type lithium manganese transition metal oxide for use in lithium batteries, which can increase the capacity retention ratio during cycling, and can increase the power output retention ratio during cycling. Disclosed is a spinel type lithium manganese transition metal oxide having an angle of repose of 50&#xb0; to 75&#xb0;, and having an amount of moisture (25&#xb0; C. to 300&#xb0; C.) measured by the Karl Fischer method of more than 0 ppm and less than 400 ppm.

Spinel-type lithium manganese transition metal oxide

There is provided a Co-based 5-V spinel-type lithium manganese-containing complex oxide not only having an operating potential of 4.5 V or higher but also being capable of extending its capacity region of a 5.5 to 5.5 V region and being capable of enhancing its energy density as well. There is proposed a spinel-type lithium cobalt manganese-containing complex oxide having a crystal structure classified as a space group Fd-3m and being represented by the general formula [Li(CoMn)O(wherein 0.90&#x2266;x&#x2266;1.15 and 0.75&#x2266;y&#x2266;1.25), wherein the oxide has a crystallite size measured by a Rietveld method using the fundamental method of 100 nm to 200 nm, an interatomic distance of Li&#x2014;O of 1.80 &#x212b; to 2.00 &#x212b;, and a strain of 0.20 to 0.50.

Spinel-type lithium cobalt manganese-containing complex oxide

A negative electrode active material for nonaqueous secondary batteries is disclosed. The active material contains a silicon solid solution having one or more than one of a group 3 semimetal or metal element, a group 4 semimetal or metal element except silicon, and a group 5 nonmetal or semimetal element incorporated in silicon as a solute element. The solute element is present more on the crystal grain boundaries of the silicon solid solution than inside the grains.

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Takehara, Japan

Shinya Kagei