Nanoscale Porous Lithium Titanate Anode for Superior High Temperature Performance.

In this work, nanoscale porous lithium titanate (LTO) anode material was synthesized by using aqueous spray drying method after ball milling. The size of the LTO nanoparticles was optimized to 200 nm because of its considerable moisture absorption levels for stable performance and its cooperation to make good quality electrodes found with testing. The electrochemical performance of the synthesized LTO nanoparticles was found to be very stable at high operating temperature (50 °C) and high current rate (5 C) which was worth noticing than its usual unfavorable behaviors (gas generation and surface phase transitions) at higher temperatures. In the postanalysis on the aged LTO cells, high-resolution-transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) and fast Fourier transform (FFT) measurements reveal that the LTO phase transitions are maintained to very thin surface level (3-5 nm) even after 500 cycles at 50 °C. Moreover, the synthesized LTO material showed stable cycling with a high capacity of 138.74 mA h g(-1) at 1 C rate and 111.53 mA h g(-1) at 5 C rate. Furthermore, high columbic efficiency and excellent capacity retention over 500 cycles at 50 °C was achieved. The enhanced electrochemical properties can be attributed to the increase in surface area and shortened Li(+) diffusion lengths because of the nanoscale primary particles and porous structure of the synthesized LTO particles.