New synthesis route to decorate Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ grains with GO flakes

Lithium titanium oxide (Li₄Ti₅O₁₂) particles were surface-decorated with 1–5% wt. of graphene oxide (GO) using new low temperature method (LTM). All the synthesized materials have been characterized by a number of methods: X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The study includes the influence of the graphene oxide flakes decoration on lithium titanium oxide crystal structure. Raman analysis demonstrates a typical spinel spectra of Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ (LTO) and relatively sharp D and G lines of GO structure. The XPS measurements shows the most intense peaks at the binding energy of 284.5 eV, which corresponds to C=C/C−C in aromatic rings of GO located on the surface of Li₄Ti₅O₁₂. The peaks observed at 285.8, 286.9 and 288.3 eV belong to C−O in hydroxyl and epoxy groups, carbonyl functional groups, and O−C=O in carboxyl groups, respectively. The correlation between the structural and morphological analysis of spinel Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ structure decorated with graphene oxide (GO) flakes was examined for the first time in this work. - Highlights: • A new low temperature method was used to decorate the LTO surface using graphene oxide flakes. • No morphological changes were made in the material after GO flakes decoration. • Raman spectra shows relatively sharp D and G lines of GO structure in the LTO/n-GO composites.