Facile solution-based synthesis of spinel Li4Ti5O12 nanosheets and the application in lithium ion Batteries

• A facile solution-based synthesis route for preparing nanoscale Li4Ti5O12.
• The route is favorable in fabricating nanoscale Li4Ti5O12 on a large scale.
• The as-prepared Li4Ti5O12 has nanosheets structure.
• The as-prepared Li4Ti5O12 shows good cycle stability and high specific capacity.

A simple low-temperature solution-synthesis method is developed for preparing nanostructured Li4Ti5O12. Compared with normal hydrothermal synthesis (temperature > 120 °C), this low-temperature (60 °C) approach is more suitable for fabricating pure Li4Ti5O12 nanomaterials on a large scale due to its low requirements of reaction conditions and equipments. The as-prepared Li4Ti5O12 nanosheets are characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and cyclic voltammetry. Galvanostatic testing results show that the discharging capacity of the sample still remains 148.9mAhg− 1 at 10C rates after 100 cycles, presenting excellent rate performance and cycle stability.