Wet‐chemistry synthesis of Li4Ti5O12as anode materials rendering high‐rate Li‐ion storage

Compared with traditional anode materials, spinel-structured Li4Ti5O12 (LTO) with “zero-strain” characteristic offers better cycling stability. In this work, by a wet-chemistry synthesis method, LTO anode materials have been successfully synthesized by using CH3COOLi·2H2O and C16H36O4Ti as raw materials. The results show that sintering conditions significantly affect purity, uniformity of particle sizes, and electrochemical properties of as-prepared LTO materials. The optimized LTO product calcined at 650°C for 20 hours demonstrates small particle sizes and excellent electrochemical performances. It delivers an initial discharge capacity of 242.3 mAh g−1 and remains at 117.4 mAh g−1 over 500 cycles at the current density of 60 mA g−1 in the voltage range of 1.0 to 3.0 V. When current density is increased to 1200 mA g−1, its discharge capacity reaches 115.6 mAh g−1 at the first cycle and remains at 64.6 mAh g−1 after 2500 cycles. The excellent electrochemical performances of LTO can be attributed to the introduction of rutile TiO2 phase and small particle sizes, which increases electrical conductivity and electrode kinetics of LTO. Therefore, as-synthesized LTO in this study can be regarded as a promising anode candidate material for lithium-ion batteries.