LiF as an Artificial SEI Layer to Enhance the High-Temperature Cycle Performance of Li₄Ti₅O₁₂

Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ (LTO) is a promising anode material for electric vehicles (EVs) and electrochemical energy storage applications because of its safety, good rate capability, and long cycle life. At elevated temperature, such as 60 °C, it always shows poor cycle performance because of the instability between the electrode material and electrolyte, which may also lead to a serious gassing issue. In this article, a facile hydrothermal method is adopted to coat the LTO powder with a thin LiF layer, in which the LiF acts as an artificial solid electrolyte interface (SEI) layer to prevent the direct contact of LTO and electrolyte, thus improving the high-temperature cycle performance. Electrochemical tests prove that the LiF coating layer has no influence on the kinetics at ambient temperature and greatly enhances the high-temperature cycle stability, and the LTO@LiF composite material keeps 87% of its initial discharge capacity in 300 1C cycles at 60 °C. Moreover, the LiF coating layer exhibits a special self-driven reforming process during the initial cycles, which makes it uniform and more effective at enhancing the stability between electrode/electrolyte interfaces.