In situ coating of graphene-like sheets on Li4Ti5O12 particles for lithium-ion batteries

Li4Ti5O12 particles are synthesized coated with very thin graphene-like sheets in situ using liquidpolyacrylonitrile (LPAN) as the carbon source and added utilized conductivity additives to improve the conductivity of the electrode materials. The crystalline structures of Li4Ti5O12 with 20% LPAN and different conductivity additives composites were examined by XRD. The structure and electrochemical performance of the graphene-like sheets coated Li4Ti5O12, with conductivity additives added, was systematically investigated. The electrochemical performance also revealed that the graphene-like sheets significantly improved the discharge capacity and cycling stability of Li4Ti5012. In particular, the coated Li4Ti5012 with 20 wt% LPAN and 1% acetylene black (CB) reached 166.2 mAh g(-1) at IOC. The performance improvement is a result of the graphene-like nanosheet conformal coating, which creates an electrically conductive network for the electrode. (c) 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd.