Surfactant-free nonaqueous synthesis of lithium titanium oxide (LTO) nanostructures for lithium ion battery applications

A one-pot template-free solvothermal synthesis of crystalline Li(4)Ti(5)O(12) nanostructures based on the benzyl alcohol route'' is introduced. The 1-2 mu m sized nanostructured spherical particles are constituted of nanocrystallites in the size range of a few nm. This is the first report showing that crystalline Li(4)Ti(5)O(12) can be directly obtained by soft chemistry solution routes. The as-synthesized crystalline nanostructures show good lithium intercalation/deintercalation performances at high rates (up to 30 C) and good cycling stabilities. Annealing the nanostructures at 750 degrees C improves the performance, which approaches the theoretical capacity of Li(4)Ti(5)O(12) with no noticeable (less than 5%) capacity loss after 200 cycles.