Preparation of spherical Li4Ti5O12 anode materials by spray drying

• Spray drying process was employed to prepare a nanostructured LTO.
• The LTO particles are assembled from ~29 nm grains.
• LTO are porous, spherical and polyhedron-shaped particles.
• The spherical LTO has the excellent electrochemical performance.

Spherical Li4Ti5O12 (LTO) anode materials were synthesized by spray drying, followed by calcination at different temperatures. A well-crystallized LTO in a single phase was obtained at 750 °C. The spherical LTO particles had polyhedron-shaped grains with dimensions of 200×200×200 nm3 assembled from ~29 nm nanosized grains. The obtained sample at 750 °C had initial discharge capacities of 209.69 and 193.16 mA h g−1 at 1C and 2C rates, respectively. After 20 cycles, the as-prepared LTO retained 99.68% and 99.72% of its initial discharge capacities at 1C and 2C rates, respectively.