Spherical Li₄Ti₅O₁₂/NiO Composite With Enhanced Capacity and Rate Performance as Anode Material for Lithium-Ion...

Compositing with metal oxides is proved to be an efficient strategy to improve electrochemical performance of anode material Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ for lithium-ion batteries. Herein, spherical Li₄Ti₅O₁₂/NiO composite powders have been successfully prepared via a spray drying method. X-ray diffraction and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy results demonstrate that crystal structure of the powders is spinel. Scanning electron microscopy results show that NiO uniformly distributes throughout Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ matrix. It is found that compositing with NiO increases both discharge platform capacity and rate stability of Li₄Ti₅O₁₂. The as-prepared Li₄Ti₅O₁₂/NiO (5%) exhibits a high initial discharge capacity of 381.3 mAh g^-1 at 0.1 C, and a discharge capacity of 194.7 mAh g^-1 at an ultrahigh rate of 20 C.