Combined NMR/DFT study of paramagnetic vanadium (fluoro, oxy)-phosphates for Li or Na ion batteries

Overview & Synopsis

Paramagnetic materials for positive electrodes for Li or Na-ion batteries havebeen studied by multinuclear NMR. The local environment of the probed nucleus can becharacterized by solid state NMR making use of hyperfine interactions due to transfer ofsome electron spin density (Fermi contact shift) on this nucleus, via more or less complexmechanisms. The materials studied are vanadium fluoro or oxy phosphates of generalformulas AVPO4X (A= Li or Na; X = F, OH, or OF) belonging to the Tavorite family and theNa3V2(PO4)2F1-xOx . All these materials have been characterized by 7Li or 23Na, 31P and 19F,combined with DFT calculations to better understand local electronic structures andstructures. In particular, these studies have enabled us to highlight the presence of defects incertain materials and to discuss their impact on the electrochemical properties. The use ofthe PAW method allowed us to model diluted defects in large supercells, to calculate theFermi contact shifts of the surrounding nuclei and to study the mechanisms of electron spintransfer. This allowed us to better understand the nature of defects in materials.For some systems, the mechanisms related to the intercalation or deintercalation of Li+ orNa+ ions have also been studied by NMR.