Carbon Coated Porous Titanium Niobium Oxides as Anode Materials of Lithium-Ion Batteries for Extreme Fast Charge Applications

The development of electric vehicles (EVs) has been restricted by severe lithium plating in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) with graphite as the anode. To mitigate the lithium plating issue, carbon coated porous titanium niobium oxides (TNO@C) have been synthesized and evaluated as anode materials for extreme fast charge (XFC) applications in LIBs. Various methods have been utilized to optimize the full cells with LiNi0.6Mn0.2Co0.2O2 (NMC) as the cathode and TNO@C as the anode, delivering a high energy density of 142.8 Wh/kg (357 Wh/L) and a good energy density retention over 80% after 500 cycles with a 10 min fast charging protocol. The interfacial behaviors of the TNO@C and NMC electrodes during XFC cycling have also been investigated, proving that the lithium plating problem can be effectively suppressed by the high-voltage TiNb2O7 anode even under XFC conditions. The high energy density and long cycling stability of the NMC/TNO@C full cells demonstrate that the TNO@C anode is a promising candidate to replace graphite anode in LIBs for fast charging EVs with long driving ranges.