Optimizing the performance of Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ anode synthesized from TiO₂ xerogel and LiOH with hydrothermal-ball mill method by using acetylene black

Optimizing the Li-ion Batteries performance using Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ (LTO) as anode material by addition of using Acetylene Black was studied in this research. The LTO was successfully synthesized using sol-gel method to form TiO2 xerogel continued by calcination, hydrothermal, ball milling and sintering process. XRD (X-Ray Diffraction), scanning electron microscopy-Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) was performed to identify the characteristic of Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ powder likes phase, morphology, chemical composition and surface area. Spinel Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ and rutile TiO₂ were detected in XRD patterns. The morphology of Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ shows presence of agglomerates structure. The surface area of Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ powder is 6.404?m²/g. Electrode sheet then be prepared with LTO and mixed with PVDF binder (5 wt%) and AB 5 wt% (LTO-1), 10 wt% PVDF binder and 10wt% AB (LTO-2), 15 wt% PVDF binder and 15 wt% AB (LTO-3) of total weight solid content. Half-cell coin battery was made with lithium counter electrode. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), cyclic voltammetry (CV), and Charge-discharge (CD) test were performed to examine the performance of Li-ion Batteries. The best result was obtained in LTO-2, due to lowest resistance (27 ohm) and highest initial capacity (146.82 mAh/g). The increasing of AB content affects the rate capability of battery. It can be seen by CD test, where the LTO HT2-AC 1.5 has better rate capability then LTO-2 and LTO-1. LTO-3 has 24% of initial capacity at 10C, when LTO-2 has 21% of initial capacity at 10C, and LTO-1 has no capacity at 10C. It is proved that increasing AB content could lead to rate-capability and cycling performance improvement which reached at the optimum value in the LTO-2.