Preparation and electrochemical properties of natural spherical graphite materials coated with manganese chloride

Natural spherical graphite (NSG) is a common anode material with a wide range of applications in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). In order to improve the electrochemical performance of NSG, this paper coated NSG with MnCl₂ using the molten salt method. It was demonstrated that the formation of a cladding layer with internal pores on the surface can improve the charge/discharge capacity and rate performance of NSG@MnCl₂, which is higher than those of NSG mixed with MnCl₂ individually. The results indicate that the capacity of NSG@MnCl₂ after a 4 h reaction time at 670 °C was 493.39 mAh g⁻¹ at a current density of 0.05 A g⁻¹, which was 109.04 mAh g⁻¹ higher compared to NSG. The capacity of NSG@MnCl₂ was 153.38 mAh g⁻¹ at a current density of 2A g⁻¹, which was 128.92 mAh g⁻¹ higher than NSG.