Laser assisted method for synthesis Li₄Ti₅O₁₂/polyether sulfone composite for lithium ion batteries anodic materials

Spinel Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ (LTO) is a potential anode material for innovative high-power lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) because of its “zero strain” features during quick charging/discharging, extended cycle life, and elevated rate capability. However, LTO has limited application due to its poor ionic/electronic conductivity and slow ionic diffusion coefficient. In this work, LTO/polyether sulfone (PES) composite is synthesized via pulsed laser ablation in liquid media technique based on an infrared Nd:YAG nanosecond laser. The influences of laser ablation power were used to vary the particle sizes of the generated LTO nanoparticles on the formation of the LTO/PES structure, followed by the electrochemical performances of LTO. Various methods were used to investigate the composite's structural, optical, and morphological properties. The interactions between the polymer and nanoparticles, as well as the fine dispersion of NPs, were evident in the optical tests, which showed that the absorbance greatly improved and the energy band gap decreased. Also, the morphological images display the cubic shape of pure LTO NPs with varying particle sizes between 5 and 26 nm as the laser power changes. Furthermore, from XRD characterization, the intensity of this crystalline peak of PES decreases as a function of LTO wt. % increase without appearing of any other impurities. After that, the electrochemical performances were tested for all prepared samples, which showed that the as-prepared composite structure with a lower particle size exhibits excellent electrochemical performances. This result demonstrates that providing surface defects by forming Ti³⁺/Ti⁴⁺ pairs and oxygen vacancies in LTO is a successful method for increasing ion/electron mobility. This method can be applied to improve the battery efficiency of other substances with low ionic conductivities in the developed batteries.