In Situ Synthesis of Porous Plate‐Like Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ Lithium‐Ion Battery Anode with Advanced Li⁺ Storage Mechanism and Enhanced Electrochemical Kinetics

Abstract

Spinel Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ as the anode material for lithium‐ion batteries possessed “zero strain” characteristics, high safety, good stability, rapid Li⁺ diffusion rate, and fast charging and discharging performance, and has been used commercially. In this work, a porous plate‐like structure for Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ is constructed via an economic in situ topological reaction with H_1.07Ti_1.73O₄·H₂O as the precursor. In terms of Li⁺ storage, not only the typical intercalation reaction of Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ can be fully carried out, but also the Li⁺ storage in the form of pseudocapacitance can be introduced due to its porous structure, thus the enhanced Li⁺ storage mechanism can be realized and the reversible capacity in the work (197 mAh g⁻¹ at 0.1 A g⁻¹) break the bottleneck of 175 mAh g⁻¹ for Li₄Ti₅O₁₂. In terms of electrochemical reaction kinetics, its plate‐like shape effectively avoids agglomeration of particles reducing the charge transfer resistance, and the micropores increase the diffusion rate of Li⁺ (3.3 times faster than the commercial Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ nanoparticles). During the practical test, it can maintain the reversible capacity of 134 mAh g⁻¹ after 1000 cycles at the huge current density of 1.0 A g⁻¹ and show good compatibility with commercial LiFePO₄ cathode, which proves its great practical potential for LIBs.