The effect of sol-gel derived TiO₂ crystallite size to Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ anode performance in lithium-ion battery

The emerging portable device and electrical vehicle require safe, portable, and high-power energy sources which may be supplied by lithium-ion battery (LIB). The existing carbon anode exhibits several issues in terms of safety such as volume expansion and formation of solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) which can be overcome by applying Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ (LTO) as an anode. However, the low electronic and ionic conductivity are the main bottlenecks of LTO. This research focuses on synthesizing LTO using TiO₂ synthesized through the sol-gel method. Furthermore, the effect of TiO₂ crystalline size will be discussed accordingly. The crystalline size of TiO₂ was tailored by applying calcination temperature at 300 °C, 400 °C, and 500 °C and was heated for 6 h. The crystallite size shown by XRD patterns was 8.01 nm, 13.82 nm, and 27.01 nm, respectively. The best electrochemical properties were exhibited by LTO 300 showing the initial specific capacity of 164 mAh g⁻¹.