Enhancing battery performance by nano Si addition to Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ as anode material on lithium-ion battery

The lithium-ion battery is a battery that is being developed to become a repository of energy, particularly for electric vehicles. Lithium titanate (Li₄Ti₅O₁₂) anodes are quite promising for this application because of its zero-strain properties so it can withstand the high rate. However, the capacity of LTO (Li₄Ti₅O₁₂) is still relatively low. Therefore, the LTO needs to be combined with other materials that have high capacity such as Si. Silicon has a very high capacity which is 4200 mAh/g, but it has a high volume of the expansion. Nano-size can also help increase the capacity. Therefore composite of LTO/nano Si is made to create an anode with a high capacity and also stability. Nano Si is added with a variation of 1, 5, and 10%. LTO/nano Si composite is characterized using XRD, SEM-EDX, and TEM-EDX. Then, to determine the battery performance, EIS, CV, and CD tests were conducted. From those tests, it is studied that Si improves the conductivity of the anode, but not significantly. The addition of Si results a greater battery capacity which is 262.54 mAh/g in the LTO-10% Si. Stability of composite LTO/nano Si is good, evidenced by the coulomb efficiency at the high rate of close to 100%.