Lithium-carbon composite having cavities formed therein, and method for producing same
View Patent ↗The present invention relates to a lithium-carbon composite having cavities formed therein and a method of manufacturing the same, the method including adding and mixing an organic solvent having an aromatic ring with a lithium precursor, arranging a pair of metal wires in the organic solvent, forming a lithium-carbon composite in which a carbon body is doped with lithium through plasma discharge in a solution, and annealing the lithium-carbon composite in order to remove hydrogen from the lithium-carbon composite and form cavities in the lithium-carbon composite. Accordingly, a lithium-carbon composite can be simply synthesized using plasma discharge in a solution, and the synthesized lithium-carbon composite can be annealed to thus form cavities therein, thereby increasing the lithium charge and discharge performance of a lithium secondary battery using the lithium-carbon composite.
1. A method of manufacturing a lithium-carbon composite having cavities formed therein, comprising:
preparing an organic solvent having an aromatic ring mixed with a lithium precursor;
arranging a pair of metal wires immersed in the organic solvent;
applying bipolar-pulsed direct-current power to the metal wires to perform plasma discharge in a liquid phase to form a lithium-carbon composite in which lithium atoms are intercalated into a carbon agglomerated body;
removing any remaining organic solvent to separate the lithium-carbon composite; and
annealing the lithium-carbon composite in order to remove hydrogen from the lithium-carbon composite and to form cavities in the lithium-carbon composite.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the organic solvent is an organic solvent comprising a hydrocarbon (HC), which is present in a solution at room temperature and is composed exclusively of carbon (C) and hydrogen (H) without other elements.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the organic solvent is selected from the group consisting of xylene, benzene, toluene and mixtures thereof.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the lithium precursor is cyclopentadienyl lithium.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plasma discharge is performed in an oxygen free environment.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the annealing of the lithium-carbon composite is performed at a temperature that is sufficient to remove substantially all hydrogen from the lithium-carbon composite to cause lithium agglomeration.
7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the annealing of the lithium-carbon composite is performed at 400° C. or more.
8. A lithium-carbon composite having cavities formed therein, in which a carbon body is doped with lithium through plasma discharge in a solution and in an interior of which cavities are formed through annealing, and which has a composition of LiCx (wherein x is 4 to 2-y, y being 0.001 to 1.999).
9. The lithium-carbon composite of claim 8 , wherein the amount of lithium in the lithium-carbon composite is 4 to 6 wt % based on 100 wt % of the lithium-carbon composite.