Synthesis of nano-sized Li ₄Ti ₅O ₁₂ via a sol-gel method and its electrochemical performance study

With lithium acetate and tetrabutyl titanate [Ti(OC ₄H ₉) ₄] as starting materials, and PEG as a surfactant, anode material Li ₄Ti ₅O ₁₂ for lithium-ion batteries has been prepared by a sol-gel method. The effects of the calcining temperature and calcining time on the electrochemical performance of obtained Li ₄Ti ₅O ₁₂ were investigated. The results showed that using PEG6000 as surfactant, a single phase material with good crystallinity was obtained by calcining the gel precursors at 700°C in air for 10 h which exhibited the a narrow size distribution (100-380 nm). The nano-sized Li ₄Ti ₅O ₁₂ power shows excellent rate capability. Its 1 ^st discharge capacities at 0.1 and 5C were 164 and 127 mAh/g, respectively, and could be retained at 162 and 120 mAh/g after 50 cycles.