Sol–Gel Synthesis of Porous Li2TiO3 for High-Performance Electrochemical Supercapacitors

Abstract

Metal titanates have been considered as one of the most promising materials for supercapacitors because of their excellent properties. In this work, porous lithium titanate (Li2TiO3) nanomaterials were prepared by sol–gel method using lithiumhydroxide hydrate and tetrabutyl titanate as precursors and polystyrene spheres as a template. The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) result revealed a large specific surface area of the Li2TiO3 nanomaterials. More importantly, the porous Li2TiO3 nanomaterials were examined as the electrode materials of supercapacitors. Such porous Li2TiO3 nanomaterials’ electrode exhibited a specific capacitance of 195[Formula: see text]F[Formula: see text]g[Formula: see text] at a current density of 1[Formula: see text]A[Formula: see text]g[Formula: see text] with a capacity retention of 96.3% after 5000 cycles in 3[Formula: see text]M KOH aqueous electrolyte. These superior results indicate that the porous Li2TiO3 nanomaterials are excellent materials for high-performance energy storage devices.