Rational design of nano-structured ammonium manganese phosphate hydrate as lithium ion battery anode

Abstract Currently, multi-dimensional scale controllable preparation of energy nano-materials is an important strategy to achieve high performance. To solve these issues, nano-structured lumpy particles and thin sheets of ammonium manganese phosphate hydrate (NMP) were designed and fabricated by facile solid-state reaction at room temperature and co-precipitation method, respectively. When used as anode for LIBs for the first time, the lumpy particles exhibits better electrochemical performance, such as higher discharge capacity, better cycling stability, rate capability, compared with the thin sheets NMP. For example, the lumpy particles NMP electrode delivers a high reversible specific capacity of 1307 mAh g-1 at 100 mA g-1 after 350 cycles, while the other NMP electrode presents only half. The excellent performance of nano-structured lumpy particles NMP can be ascribed to the smaller longitudinal-transverse ratio of lumpy particles and porous structure.