Outstanding lithium-storage performance of carbon-free Li4Ti5O12 anode material for rechargeable lithium-ion batteries

In this work, carbon-free Li4Ti5O12 material has been successfully prepared by using a conventional sol-gel method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) result reveals that the as-prepared pristine Li4Ti5O12 sample has the spinel-type structure with a cubic lattice. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images indicate that the morphology of Li4Ti5O12 material is well-crystallized with a uniform size distribution in the range of 300-700 nm. Moreover, high-resolution TEM image demonstrates that the surface of Li4Ti5O12 particle is very smooth without any carbon coating. When used as anode material for lithium-ion batteries, the pristine Li4Ti5O12 exhibits outstanding lithium-storage performances such as high reversible capacity, excellent rate capability and stable cycling property. Therefore, we can speculate that the as-prepared Li4Ti5O12 sample without any carbon materials is a promising candidate for the application of high-performance anode for lithium-ion batteries.