Differences in the Ti4+/Ti3+ Redox Reactions between Li4Ti5O12 and LiTi2(PO4)3 Observed By Soft X-Ray Spectroscopy

Abstract

Clarification of the redox reaction in electrode materials for Li-ion batteries is essential to obtain strategies to improve the performances such as charge-discharge capacity, voltage and cyclability. We focus on the difference in voltage, i.e., redox potential between Li4Ti5O12 (LTO) and LiTi2(PO4)3 (LTP). Spinel-type LTO with a redox potential around 1.5 V vs Li/Li+ is one of the anode materials [1], while the main redox potential of LTP (NASICON-type structure) is around 2.4 V vs Li/Li+ [2]. Although the difference in redox potential is as large as ~0.9 V, it has been thought to be that Ti4+/Ti3+ redox couple is identical for both LTO and LTP. Here, we demonstrate the electronic-structure analysis of LTO and LTP by using soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and soft X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS). Operando Ti L 2,3-edge XAS by use of an all-solid-state cell [3,4] successfully revealed reversible Ti4+/Ti3+ redox reactions by discharge/charge for both materials, but the XAS line shapes were different. By analyzing the spectra using multiplet calculation [5], differences in the crystal-field splitting for the TiO6 octahedron and O 2p -> Ti 3d charge-transfer (CT) effect were found. The different CT effect was also confirmed by Ti 2p-3d resonant XPS measurements for the initial-state LTO and LTP samples. Moreover, the difference in redox potential is mostly explained by the energy levels of the pre-edge structures in the O K-edge XAS calibrated with the O 1s XPS spectra. In the presentation, the understandings of the spectroscopic results will be discussed in detail.