Carbon-coated lithium titanate: effect of carbon precursor addition processes on the electrochemical performance

In this paper, two carbon-coated lithium titanate (LTO-C1 and LTO-C2) composites were synthesized using the ball-milling-assisted calcination method with different carbon precursor addition processes. The physical and electrochemical properties of the as-synthesized negative electrode materials were characterized to investigate the effects of two carbon-coated LTO synthesis processes on the electrochemical performance of LTO. The results show that the LTO-C2 synthesized by using Li2CO3 and TiO2 as the raw materials and sucrose as the carbon source in a one-pot method has less polarization during lithium insertion and extraction, minimal charge transfer impedance value and the best electrochemical performance among all samples. At the current density of 300 mA·h·g−1, the LTO-C2 composite delivers a charge capacity of 126.9 mA·h·g−1, and the reversible capacity after 300 cycles exceeds 121.3 mA·h·g−1 in the voltage range of 1.0–3.0 V. Furthermore, the electrochemical impedance spectra show that LTO-C2 has higher electronic conductivity and lithium diffusion coefficient, which indicates the advantages in electrode kinetics over LTO and LTO-C1. The results clarify the best electrochemical properties of the carbon-coated LTO-C2 composite prepared by the one-pot method.