Electrochemical properties of TiO₂ nanotube-Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ composite anodes for lithium-ion batteries

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

<P><B>Abstract</B></P><P>For application as an anode material in lithium batteries, composite anodes consisting of TiO<SUB>2</SUB> nanotubes (TNT) and Li<SUB>4</SUB>Ti<SUB>5</SUB>O<SUB>12</SUB> (LTO) nanocrystalline particles are prepared by hydrothermal reaction of rutile TiO<SUB>2</SUB> particles, physical blending with LTO, and subsequent heat treatment at 300 °C. The TNT-LTO composites with varying the composition are characterized by electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, potentiostatic cyclic voltammetry, and galvanostatic charge-discharge tests at various current rates. With higher LTO content, short TNTs with the average tube diameter of 10 nm are distributed among the potato-shaped LTO particles with the average diameter of 200 nm. At higher content of TNT, however, the LTO particles are sparsely distributed in the fibrillar aggregates of TNT with more lengthened image. As a result, the samples of TNT:LTO = 2:8 and 4:6 show superior cycle performance and high-rate capability, mainly due to their higher electrode densities to yield nanotubular TNT distributed on and supported by potato-shaped LTO nanoparticles.</P> <P><B>Highlights</B></P><P>► Composite anodes are prepared by hydrothermal reaction of rutile TiO<SUB>2</SUB> particles, physical blending with Li<SUB>4</SUB>Ti<SUB>5</SUB>O<SUB>12</SUB>, and subsequent heat treatment. ► The composites with varying the composition are characterized by SEM, XRD, cyclic voltammetry, and charge/discharge tests at various current rates. ► The composites of TiO<SUB>2</SUB>: Li<SUB>4</SUB>Ti<SUB>5</SUB>O<SUB>12</SUB> = 2:8 and 4:6 show superior cycle performance and high-rate capability, due to the higher electrode density.</P>