Lithium titanate as anode material for lithium ion batteries: Synthesis, posttreatment and its electrochemical response

S. CHAUQUE; F. Y. OLIVA; A. VISINTIN; A. J. BUSTELO AND D. BARRACO; E. P.M. LEIVA; O.R. CAMARA

JOURNAL OF ELECTROANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY - (Print)

ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2017 vol. 799 p. 142 - 155

1572-6657

The relationship between the structure and crystallinity of lithium titanate Li4Ti5O12, at different synthesis posttreatmentconditions on the electric energy storage capacity is discussed. Li4Ti5O12 was synthesized by solidstatereaction at a high temperature and time (950 °C, 24 h) and the resulting material was post-treated with aball milling process at different times. Additional samples were prepared with a post-calcination after and addinggraphite carbon previously to the longer applied ball-milling time. All the obtained materials were structurallyand morphologically characterized by XRD and SEM techniques. To study the effect of ball milling time on thelithium-ion storage capacity, electrochemical experiments of galvanostatic charge-discharge cycling, cyclicvoltammetry, and rate capability experiments were performed. The application of high-energy milling showedthat the obtained specific capacity increased with particle size reduction as long as the crystallinity degree of theLTO material remained high. The Li-ion diffusion coefficient for each material was obtained, as well as itsspecific resistivity and the intrinsic rate constant for the electrochemical process. It was possible to observe thatthe ball-milling treatment producing improvements in the charge storage capacity leads also to improvements inmass transport and electrical conduction, although not necessarily produce better electrochemical kinetic behavior.The inter-particle connectivity was analyzed in terms of state-of-the-art percolation modeling