Conductive Inks Based on a Lithium Titanate Nanotube Gel for High‐Rate Lithium‐Ion Batteries with Customized Configuration

Abstract

Solution-processable inks based on lithium titanate with a conductive network architecture, toward high-rate lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) with a customized configuration are developed. The inks, with tunable viscosity, are compatible for on-demand coating techniques. The lithium titanate electrode derived from these inks exhibits excellent high-rate capacity (≈124 mA h g(-1) at 90 C, 15.7 A g(-1) ) after 1000 cycles.

Challenges of Spinel Li4Ti5O12 for Lithium‐Ion Battery Industrial Applications

“…In comparison, many kinds of organic carbon precursors are used for preparing high-rate Li 4 Ti 5 O 12 /C anodic materials, because the organic carbon precursors are prone to forming uniform and thickness-controllable carbon films on the surface of Li 4 Ti 5 O 12 particles during the pyrolysis process. On the other hand, inorganic carbon sources (such as graphene, [30] carbon nanotubes (CNTs), [31] black carbon, [32] wileyonlinelibrary.com active carbon, [33] graphitized nano-carbon [34] and bamboo carbon, [35] etc.) Common organic carbon sources used for improving the rate performance of Li 4 Ti 5 O 12 anodes include sucrose, [23] glucose, [23] malic acid, [24] citric acid, [25] pitch, [26] ethylenediamine (EDA), [27] certain polymers, [28] and so forth.…”

“…However, although almost all of the organic materials can be decomposed into carbon after pyrolysis, the conductivity and degree of graphitization are different. Among the kinds of inorganic carbon sources, the low-dimensional graphene [30,36] and CNTs [31,37] carbon sources can obviously improve the rate performance of Li 4 Ti 5 O 12 batteries, which are summarized in detail in the subsequent "Advanced carbon sources" section. Nugroho et al [29] studied the influence of organic carbon sources with different functional groups and chain lengths (including oleylamine, oleic acid, hexylamine) on the particle size, morphology, crystallinity and electrochemical properties of Li 4 Ti 5 O 12 /C composites.…”

“…Graphene and graphene-based materials as a mono layer of two-dimensional (2D) carbon material, possess remarkable properties, such as high electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and mechanical strength,, and have shown outstanding potential for applications in energy storage. Tang et al [30] developed a high-rate Li 4 Ti 5 O 12 / graphene electrode by spraying, drop-casting or screen-printing the precursor gel or ink on the current collector to directly form a 3D-structured electrode. More recently, many efforts have been made to prepare high-performance Li 4 Ti 5 O 12 /graphene composites using mechanical mixing, [45] spray-drying, [22,46] electrostatic assembly, [47] hydrothermal [48,49] and solvothermal methods, [50] etc.…”

Advanced composites of complex Ti-based oxides as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries

“…To fully use the unique properties of individual graphene sheets, innovative preparation approaches are required. Recent efforts have been made to prepare high-performance Li 4 Ti 5 O 12 / graphene composites by mechanical mixing [65], spraydrying [62,66], hydrothermal/solvothermal reaction [63,64], and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) [69]. Ge et al [74] [71], spray drying [40] and microwave irradiation [70].…”

Confined-space synthesis of nanostructured anatase, directed by genetically engineered living organisms for lithium-ion batteries

“…The semicircle in the middle frequency region is related to charge transfer resistance ( R ct ), indicating Li + transfer across the interface between the electrolyte and electrode. 37,38 The equivalent circuit (Fig. 7a inset) and fitting results (Table S2†) suggest that the R ct value of the 5-TiO 2 /C electrode is much lower than that of the 5-TiO 2 electrode (45.9 Ω vs. 69.6 Ω).…”