Nonaqueous synthesis of nanostructure lithium titanium oxide as high rate electrode material for lithium ion batteries

Spinel Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ has been considered as a promising alternative material to carbon anodes due to zero-strain or volume change during the charging and discharging. Furthermore, Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ has an flat potential plateau at about 1.55V (vs. Li/Li⁺), potential problem of electrolyte decomposition is alleviated. However, the high power performance of Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ is still limited by its inherent insulating character. One of methods for solving this problem is reduction of particle size. A one-pot template-free solvothermal synthesis of crystalline Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ nanostructures based on the "benzyl alcohol route" is presented. The 1-2 μm sized nanostructured spherical particles are constituted of nanocrystallites in the size range of a few nm. The as synthesized crystalline nanostructures show good electrochemical performances at high rate and good cycling stability. Annealing the nanostructures improves the performance, which approaches the theoretical capacity of Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ with no noticeably capacity loss.