A Cost‐Effective Production Route of Li4Ti5O12 Resisting Unsettled Market and Subsequent Application in the Li‐Ion Capacitor

Abstract

Outstanding materials and novel device structures are key factors in satisfying the increasing demand for energy storage. Li‐ion capacitors, as one typical model of asymmetric supercapacitors, benefit from the battery's ultrahigh specific energy and supercapacitor's superlarge specific power to meet the balanced electrochemical energy storage requirements. The inherent and irreplaceable advantages make spinel lithium titanate an optimal candidate for power batteries and Li‐ion capacitors. However, upstream market volatility, including price spikes and supply shortages, tremendously threatens spinel lithium titanate's production, sale, and application. Lithium hydroxide hydrate is an alternative raw material to synthesize spinel lithium titanate synthesis, which can help address these concerns. The indirect production path generates high‐quality lithium carbonate as an intermediate product. Spinel lithium titanate is synthesized preferably via another economically and technically more efficient method that skips the isolation step after carboxylation. The electrochemical performance of the resulting spinel lithium titanate is evaluated to be better than that of commercial competitors. The spinel lithium titanate negative electrode‐based lithium‐ion capacitor achieves a specific energy of 89.5 Wh kg−1. These results demonstrate the success of efforts to find a feasible and affordable synthesis route to mitigate market risks.

Keywords

• costs
• Li‐ion capacitors
• lithium carbonates
• lithium hydroxide hydrates
• spinel lithium titanates
• syntheses