The lithium storage mechanism of a new Li3Ti0.75(MoO4)3 high-performance anode material and its applications for both half-cell and full-cell

Abstract

Anode materials with a low operating voltage, high capacity and excellent cycling stability are of great significance in the practical application of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). In this work, a new anode material Li3Ti0.75(MoO4)3 is successfully synthesized. Due to the realization of the multielectron reversible reaction from Mo6+ to Mo0, the Li3Ti0.75(MoO4)3 electrode shows excellent electrochemical properties with a high reversible capacity of approximately 950 mAh g−1. Moreover, because the uniform distribution of titanium produced in the initial discharge process increases the conductivity of the electrode material, even at a high current density of 1 A g−1, a stable and high specific capacity of 644.6 mAh g−1 can be obtained after 350 cycles, which is close to twice that of a commercial graphite anode. Using in-situ X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), we analyze the complex reaction mechanism of the electrode in detail for the first time. Moreover, the full-cell test exhibits a stable and reversible practical specific capacity of ∼120 mAh g−1 and excellent cycling stability. These results show that Li3Ti0.75(MoO4)3 promising for practical application and may be a potential alternative to commercial graphite anode materials.