Facile controlled synthesis of hierarchically structured mesoporous Li4Ti5O12/C/rGO composites as high-performance anode of lithium-ion batteries

In this paper, a facile strategy is proposed to controllably synthesize mesoporous Li4Ti5O12/C nanocomposite embedded in graphene matrix as lithium-ion battery anode via the co-assembly of Li4Ti5O12 (LTO) precursor, GO, and phenolic resin. The obtained composites, which consists of a LTO core, a phenolic-resin-based carbon shell, and a porous frame constructed by rGO, can be denoted as LTO/C/rGO and presents a hierarchical structure. Owing to the advantages of the hierarchical structure, including a high surface area and a high electric conductivity, the mesoporous LTO/C/rGO composite exhibits a greatly improved rate capability as the anode material in contrast to the conventional LTO electrode.