Synthesis, Characterization and Electrochemical Studies on Li4Fe(CN)6 as Cathode Material for Lithium Batteries

An easy and cost effective method of synthesis of Li4Fe(CN)6 has been reported. The material, as obtained, has been characterized by UV-VIS, FTIR, powder XRD and SEM-EDX. Cyclic-voltametry and charge-discharge studies were carried out for electrochemical characterization of the synthesized material. A laboratory model lithium cell was fabricated using Li4Fe(CN)6 as cathode, lithium metal as anode and 1M LiClO4 dissolved in ethylene carbonate and dimethyl carbonate (1:1) mixture as electrolyte. The cell shows an open circuit voltage (OCV) of 3.03 volts vs. Li and a discharge capacity of 90 mAhg-1 (theoretical capacity, 112 mAhg-1) in the first few cycles at 0.15 C rates. The charge-discharge behaviour remains practically unaltered up to 20 cycles. Thus Li4Fe(CN)6 may be considered as a promising cathode material for Lithium battery.