First principles study on Mn-doped LiFePO4 as cathode material for rechargeable lithium batteries

The electronic structure and diffusion energy barriers of Li ions in pure and Mn-doped LiFePO4 have been studied using density functional theory(DFT).The results demonstrate clearly that Fe-O covalent bond is weaker than P-O covalent bond.Pure LiFePO4 has band gap of 0.56 eV and diffusion energy barrier of 2.57 eV for Li ions,while the dopant has small band gap of 0.25 eV and low diffusion energy barrier of 2.31 eV,which indicates that the electronic and ionic conductivity of LiFePO4 have been improved owing to doping.