Optimizing the performance of microcomposites Li₄Ti₅O₁₂/Sn with Sn and Li₄Ti₅O₁₂/Sn@C anode and activated carbon content variables for lithium-ion batteries

Lithium titanate (Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ or LTO) is a very promising anode material to replace graphite in li-ion batteries due to its safety and fast-charging ability. However, due to the low theoretical capacity of LTO, a strategy must be developed to overcome this problem. Synthesizing LTO by the combined sol-gel and solid-state method, and the addition of tin powder together with activated carbon, is expected to increase the specific capacity of the anode material. The tin powder compositions in this research were 5wt%, 7.5wt% and 12.5wt%. Further, to investigate the influence of activated carbon, 5wt%, 15wt%, and 25wt% activated carbon were added, while the composition of Sn was kept at 7.5wt%. XRD, SEM and BET surface area measurements was performed to characterize the morphology and structure of the samples. The performance of the battery was analyzed using EIS, CV and CD. The results show that TiO2 rutile was present in the LTO samples, with peak rutile decreasing significantly with the addition of carbon. More disperse particle morphology was obtained by the addition of activated carbon. The LTO/Sn anode material exhibits excellent reversible capacities of 191.1 mAh/g at 12.5wt% tin. Additionally, the LTO/Sn@C has the highest specific-capacity at 270.2 mAh/g, with a composition of 5wt% carbon and 7.5wt% Sn. The results show that LTO/Sn@C is a potential anode material for the future.