Highly porous Li4Ti5O12 films as high-rate electrodes for fast lithium ion storage.

Li4Ti5O12 (LTO) is one of the most promising high-power anodes for lithium ion batteries, but its large-current performance is still undermined due to relatively poor ion/electron transfer. In this work, we report a powerful hydrothermal method for fabrication of highly porous binder-free Li4Ti5O12 films, which show hierarchical structure composed of interconnected primary nanoparticles of 50-100 nm and secondary nanowalls. The lithium ion storage performance of designed Li4Ti5O12 films is thoroughly studied and demonstrated with excellent high-rate performance. The as-prepared Li4Ti5O12 films exhibit a high specific capacity of 146 mAh g-1 at the current density of 2 C. In view of good structural stability, a notable cycling stability is verified with a specific capacity of 130 mAh g-1 after 5000 cycles at 2 C. Our method provides a novel route for synthesis of other advanced anodes for application in the field of ultrafast energy storage. Highly porous binder-free Li4Ti5O12 films are synthesised via a hydrothermal method and exhibit a noticeable high-rate electrochemical performance as the anode of lithium ion batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]