Soccerene-like Li₄Ti₅O₁₂/C as anode materials for fast-charging Li-ion batteries

Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ (LTO) with great promising anode material for Li-ion batteries (LIBs) has attracted extensive attention, while the large-scale application is hampered owing to the low electronic conductivity and Li⁺ diffusion coefficient. Herein, the carbon-coated LTO with a unique soccerene-like structure is constructed to simultaneously improve the electron and ion transport by the simple and scalable soft template method. The as-obtained LTO/C material exhibits unique soccerene-like morphology with a large specific surface area and abundant open channels, which can endow the rapid diffusion for Li⁺ and electrons, and provide more favorable paths for penetration of the electrolyte. Besides, the carbon layer (about 3 nm) on the surface of LTO material can improve the electronic conductivity. Therefore, the LTO/C shows superior electrochemical performance, especially at high-rate discharging.The composite delivers remarkable discharge-specific capacities of 175.42, 170.45, 165.76, 158.90, 153.13, 147.32, 138.64, and 126.95 mA h g⁻¹ at 0.2, 1, 3, 5, 10, 20, 40, and 80C, respectively as well as excellent cyclic stability at 20C with high capacity retention of 99.5 % over 1008 cycles. The composite with a unique soccerene-like structure provides a good prospect for the design of anode material for Li-ion batteries with high rate and long cycling life.