Recent development and application of Li4Ti5O12 as anode material of lithium ion battery

Lithium-ion batteries with both high power and high energy density are one of the promising power sources for electric devices, especially for electric vehicles (EV) and other portable electric devices. One of the challenges is to improve the safety and electrochemical performance of lithium ion batteries anode materials. Li4Ti5O12 has been accepted as a novel anode material of power lithium ion battery instead of carbon because it can release lithium ions repeatedly for recharging and quickly for high current. However, Li4Ti5O12 has an insulating character due to the electronic structure characterized by empty Ti 3d-states, and this might result in the insufficient applications of LTO at high current discharge rate before any materials modifications. This review focuses first on the present status of Li4Ti5O12 including the synthesized method, doping, surface modification, application and theoretical calculation, then on its near future development.