Effects of Active Material Particles Size Distribution on the Fabrication of TiNb2O7 Electrode Used in Lithium-Ion Batteries

In this study effect of active material particle size distribution (PSD) on TiNb2O7 electrodes and their performance were evaluated. To determine the effect of PSD, have focused on the performance of the electrode, which is mainly affected by the performance of individual particles and their interaction. For this purpose, TiNb2O7 was successfully synthesized by mechanochemical method and post-annealing, as an anode material for lithium-ion batteries. Phase identifications and microstructure characterization was carried out by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) to identify the phases and evaluate the morphology of the synthesized samples. The charging and discharging tests were conducted using a battery-analyzing device for evaluating the electrochemical properties of the fabricated anodes. Eventually, at faster charging rates, the electrochemical performance was found to be improved when smaller active material particle size distribution was used. Differences in particles size distributions resulted in variable discharge capacities so that the sample with particle size higher than 25 microns (>25 μm) showed a capacity of 19 mAh/g after 179 cycles, which had a lower capacity than their sample with particle size less than 25 microns (<25 μm). The final capacity of the sample with a particle size less than 25 microns is 72 mAh/g.