Issue 4, 2020

A low-cost and Li-rich organic coating on a Li4Ti5O12 anode material enabling Li-ion battery cycling at subzero temperatures

Abstract

In this paper, we report the surface modification of the Li4Ti5O12 (LTO) anode material with a freshly prepared Li-rich PTCLi4 organic molecule using a spray-dryer technique. In addition, burning the resulting powder yielded an electrode material with a few-nanometer-thick carbon coating. For comparison, carbon-coated LTO powder was prepared with graphene oxide (GO) using the same protocol. Organic molecules were first characterized using FTIR, XPS, TGA, XRD, and SEM methods. PTCLi4-coated LTO powders were observed via SEM and the corresponding EDX mapping as well as micro-Raman and XPS spectroscopic analyses confirmed the efficient surface coverage of the anode material. After the burning, a graphitic-like carbon coating with an ID/IG of approximately 0.76 and a thickness of a few nanometers was confirmed by TEM observations. Thermogravimetric analyses revealed that the content of carbon varied from 0.3 to 1.5 wt%, depending on the reaction conditions and material used (i.e., PTCLi4 or GO). Interestingly, electrochemical cycling at 25 °C of PTCLi4-coated LTO electrodes gave rise to superior performance compared to that of the pristine electrode, especially at high C-rates, and carbon-coated electrodes showed intermediate performance. Most importantly, the good cyclability of PTCLi4-coated LTO electrodes was observed with a specific capacity of 145 mA h g−1 after 100 cycles at a C/2 rate with an average coulombic efficiency of 100%. XPS analyses performed on aged electrodes revealed a low degradation of the electrolyte with a lower concentration of LiF on the surface of the PTCLi4-coated LTO electrodes. Finally, the cycling of LTO electrodes demonstrated the potential of using the PTCLi4 coating to increase the Li-ion transfer at the electrode–electrolyte interface at subzero temperatures. In fact, the PTCLi4-coated LTO electrode delivered almost the same specific capacity at a C/2 rate when cycled at –20 °C as the pristine electrode cycled at 25 °C.

Graphical abstract: A low-cost and Li-rich organic coating on a Li4Ti5O12 anode material enabling Li-ion battery cycling at subzero temperatures

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
21 Apr 2020
Accepted
27 May 2020
First published
22 Jun 2020
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Mater. Adv., 2020,1, 854-872

A low-cost and Li-rich organic coating on a Li4Ti5O12 anode material enabling Li-ion battery cycling at subzero temperatures

N. Delaporte, P. Chevallier, S. Rochon, G. Lajoie, J. Daigle, V. Gariepy, D. Clément, R. Veillette, M. Mathieu, M. Provencher, M. L. Trudeau and K. Zaghib, Mater. Adv., 2020, 1, 854 DOI: 10.1039/D0MA00227E

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