Electrochemical properties of citric acid-assisted combustion synthesis of Li4Ti5O12 adopting Cr by the solid-state reaction process

The effects of Cr3+ doping and citric acid combustion on the electrochemical properties of Li4Ti5O12 were systematically investigated. The solid-state reaction process was used to synthesize four samples marked as LTO, C-LTO, LT-Cr-O, and C-LT-Cr-O, respectively. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques were employed to study their structures and morphologies. The cyclic voltammetry (CV) tests, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) analysis, and charge-discharge cycling were performed to study their electrochemical performance. The experimental results showed that the C-LT-Cr-O sample exhibited the advantages both of the Cr3+ doping and the citric acid combustion, presented high ordered morphology and high phase purity, and displayed a discharge capacity of 101.3 mAh g(-1) with about 91.8 % capacity retention after 1000 cycles at 10C discharge rate. Therefore, the C-LT-Cr-O material is a promising anode material to be used in lithium ion batteries.