Invited Talks: Transition Metal Oxides - University Blog Service - The ...

The John B. Goodenough Symposium in Materials Science & Engineering –
In Honor of His 90 th Birthday
The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas
October 26-27, 2012
Lessons from the early days of Li-ion
Jeff Dahn
Dalhousie University
Email: Website:
Abstract Body in Space Below:
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Most early Li‐ion cells used LiCoO2 as the positive electrode material, even though John Goodenough and coworkers
showed that LiNiO2 was also an intercalation electrode. At Moli Energy Ltd, where I was Director of
Research, we "bet the farm" on LiNiO2 around 1988 due to the lower cost of Ni compared to Co. Our early scale
up experiments led to surprises regarding the reactivity of Li(x)NiO2 with electrolyte at elevated temperature.
Using my old research report records, I will describe our successes and ultimate failure using LiNiO2 in Li‐ion cells.
Characterizing charged positive electrode reactivity with electrolyte turns out to be one of the first (not the last!)
experiments one should do when evaluating new electrode materials. These lessons are critical for young (and
old!) researchers moving into Na‐ion and Mg‐ion systems.